The World Shukokai Karate Championships took place in Lisbon, Portugal between 14^th-16^th May 2010. The tournament took place over three days which was extremely taxing for all of the athletes involved. Sensei Paul having achieved Bronze medal in the Europeans in 2009 and also having beaten the current European Champion in the team event 6 points to 1 he felt he was in top form and could win the -80kg category but as he has learnt over the years of competing, anything can happen on the day.

The team Kumite event took place on the Thursday with all the finals being held on the Saturday and, if England were to make there, it was going to be a hard three days. The England team had trained very hard leading up to the Championships and there was a change in the line up, but the team was still looking strong enough to get through the rounds. Unfortunately the team went out in the Second round being seeded to Portugal B. The Portugal B team went out in the quarter finals so the English team couldn't fight on in the repercharge for the Bronze medal. This was a real shock result for the team and nobody would have expected it to happen looking back on previous years.

After the days events the whole squad went for a meal in the evening and Sensei Paul gave a pep talk to the squad and he named Friday to be the tournament operation turnaround.

Friday's tournament began and Sensei Paul started well in his individual event. This was a mean feat after coaching the rest of the England team in their individual events for the majority of the day. He found himself in a pressurised situation, as he more than ever wanted the squad to do well and perform to their best of their ability.

The -80kg event commenced and the competitors looked fired up and ready to go. Paul being top seed had to watch the other fighters before he had a chance to show the crowd what he had been working on for the past 5 months. Paul has a saying, "to move forward, one has to go back", meaning that during his training he went back to how he used to train, no outside distractions, totally focused; he felt in the best shape of his career. The crowd and the competitors waited in anticipation for Sensei Paul to step out onto the mat. The night before the competition Sensei Paul had said to one of his team mates that, "once I step onto the mat I will no how I am going to compete for the rest of the day, from the moment the referee says Hajime".

As he has been seeded Paul did not get the chance of a first round fight but in spite of this he made sure that he was fully warmed up and got off to a good start against a Portuguese competitor in the second round. Paul was very successful in his first fight after which he was in his element; feeling fit and feeling his timing was on the button. Paul's next fight was against a South African, someone he had fought 2 years ago in the World championships, in his mind it was payback time as he was defeated by this opponent before. The fight went to enchosen (first to score in overtime). As with many occasions when Sensei Paul is in this situation during fights he never panics, but just keeps to the same formula he had used in the fight before and on this occasion it was to be the correct one winning with perfectly timed punches.

Once he progressed to the final he was against another South African, the current World Champion and someone Paul had fought 4 years ago in World Championships and had defeated. Sensei Paul felt very confident in the final, his only concern was because he had fought him before his opponent would come with a different strategy to try and beat him. To his surprise it wasn't to be, Paul was in his zone leading 5 points to 1 with around 1 min 45 seconds to go and it was just a matter of time before he achieved his goal of winning his 6th World title. The clocked ticked down slowly, what was 3 minutes felt like a lifetime, but eventually the time ran down and Sensei Paul achieved his goal and was crowned World Champion once again.

England had only 15 competitors yet they came second on the medal table which was on a massive achievement and a credit to the England team managers who had backed the squad all the way: Shihan E. Daniels, Sensei Clem Braithwaite, Sensei Solfrid Daniels and Sensei Audun Daniels. Sensei Paul Richards would like to thank all of these people for giving him the opportunity to coach the squad to the best of his ability.

Here's to the KSI European Championships 2011 to held in England, let the preparations begin, 2011 hear we come, god willing, Stay tuned!!