It all came to down to a straight punch to the face.
It was overtime of the karate kumite final at the World Kickboxing and Karate Union World Championships and Waterdown’s Krista Webb was behind.
Heading into the final against Germany’s Christiane Meier, the 39-year old Waterdown woman had won all of her fights.
“They’re very picky about points and quality of technique and I fell behind a little bit,” she said of the final.
But she battled back, and with the final blow, claimed the world title in the traditional fighting discipline.
“My main passion is traditional fighting or karate limited,” Webb said. “Traditional fighting is where you don’t wear headgear, and it is expected to be good quality technique – so deadly blows they say.”
“You can’t just tag somebody in a scoring area and have that count as a point,” she explained. “It has to be a good punch in a good spot.
“It’s a little heavier hitting.”
A karate instructor at the Flamborough Family YMCA, Webb also took home a bronze medal points fighting.
Webb noted she qualified for the World Championships, held in Albir, Spain from Oct. 28-Nov. 3 at a national team tryout in Montreal.
A fourth-degree black belt in wado kai karate, Webb also qualified in traditional kata – demonstrating a pattern or form – and weapons fighting. However, due to the difficulty of transporting weapons, she didn’t compete in the discipline.
She noted this was her third trip to Worlds – but the best she’d done at previous attempts was a bronze medal.
“This has been a long journey for me,” she said. “This year I stepped up my training. I’m getting older so I wanted to hit gold at some point.
“But now, next year I plan to hit at least two golds.”
To prepare, Webb stepped up her training this year, starting her day with yoga before doing drills, strength training and karate techniques three times a day, six days a week.
She also cut out all alcohol and junk food as part of the training.
Webb said it was incredible to win the gold.
“Before every tournament I feel very anxious and nervous and I kind of wonder, ‘Why am I doing this? I’m almost 40 and I teach all the time,’” she said. “As soon as it starts I get back into my zone.
“This was incredible…but I still have a thirst to do better next time.”
She added the win provides good energy for her karate students.
“I think it’s such a good example for the students to see that we just don’t talk about it,” she said. “They can see that we’re still doing it ourselves.”
She also left Spain with a new friend – her German competitor Meier.
“The other woman I fought in the finals, we’ve been communicating since I got back,” Webb explained. “A little bit of, ‘I’m doing this many pushups today, I’m going to be ready for next year,’ kind of thing.”
Webb plans to be at next year’s Worlds, held in Orlando, Florida, despite a knee injury that will require surgery.
“My surgeon was like, ‘This is the year we’re doing surgery,’ and I was like, ‘I really want to do this first,’” she explained. “Now I’m going to try to do one more year.”
Webb said she started karate as a white belt at the YMCA about 15 years ago.
“I was very overweight…I’d started losing some weight and I wanted to do something active,” she explained. “My daughter actually started first and I was trying to help her, but not very well.
“So I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll try a class.’”
But the first class she attended she was the only adult.
“I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can walk in,’” she said. “But I thought, ‘Just do it, just walk I’m now – if you don’t do it, you’re going to regret it.’
“I fell in love with it.”
Now, karate is prevalent in her family as her daughter, husband and stepdaughter are all black belts.
Still, while Webb said the gold medal is great, being a black belt is more about who you are off the competition floor.
“Those moments (like the gold medal win) definitely enhance the experience, but it’s who you are when you’re not there,” she explained. “Helping the guy next to you, diffusing a situation instead of creating one, all of those things are what keeps me coming back to martial arts.”
She stressed that her win helps show students what is possible with karate.
“I did not come into this naturally, I came into it by working hard,” she said. “Some people come in and are just naturally gifted, but I came in overweight and not very athletically-inclined.
“I wondered if it would ever be possible to win it and it is possible.”
Courtesy of: Flamborough Review