CALANGUTE: 15-year old Abieta Menezes from Naikka Vaddo, Calangute created history by being the first ever Goan karateka to win the All India National Championship gold medal organized by the All India karate-do-Federation, recently at Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Abieta earned the honours for State in the 14-15 years black belt category overpowering Deepika Srivastava of Madhya Pradesh. Apart from Abieta’s historic feat, two other kartekas also brought honours for the State.
Pallavi Shingarajula won the silver in 16-17 years category while teammate Simran Batham had to be content with the bronze in the senior category, 18 years-and-above black belt.
The gold medal victory of Abieta and that of Pallavi (silver) and Simran (bronze) from the Goan contingent of 18 karatekas is of significance as the competition was tough and of top quality with 29 States participating.
The Goan trio was trained by Sensei Anthony Menezes at the Calangute dojo.
