Alvalade seniors and under-21 sides on form in Rotterdam

Sporting's karate teams took part in the prestigious Battle of the Teams competition this weekend, coming away with two silver medals.

In the senior event, the team comprised of Henrique Farinha, Hugo Pina and Rodrigo Pina reached the final after beating the Dutch side Choku Heren (Ceylan, Delhez, Manhoef and Nortan) and the Belgians Cika Belgium 4 (Custinne, Dasoul and Grilli). In the decisive bout, Sporting missed out to the Dutch outfit KBN Team (Sheppard, Smaal and Wold).

The other Alvalade contingent, comprised of Filipe Reis, Mauro Hernandez and Hélio Hernandez – who actually won the gold last year – finished in fifth after losing against KBN Team.

In the under-21 competition, Sporting started with a win against the German side KDNW Team 9 (Bauer, Dreier, Nkelani Tandu and Tönnis), before beating the Dutch outfit Mossel-Boot (Krisnadath, van Moerkerk, Roovers and Soares) in the semis. In the final encounter, Sporting missed out ot the Belgians Karaté Club Wallonie (Bougrine, Gabriels and Paulussen).