JUNIOR SPORT - Sporting briefs

• KARATE - Our karate kids bag 20 medals
Eight students from the Miyagi Kan Karate club travelled to Wellington last week to compete at the New Zealand Karate Nationals and brought home a total of 20 medals.
Four of them - Aidan Carr, Thomas Mackie, Shane Tregidga and Cody Rouse - were selected to represent New Zealand at the Oceanias in September.
• KARTING - Local lad McLean Top Half champ
Whangarei's Thomas McLean became the Top Half cadet class karting champion on Sunday after shining through in very damp conditions at the Rosebank Road track in Auckland.
McLean took a healthy lead into the fourth round of the series and lifted his winning margin to 37 points with two wins and two third-place finishes in the rain-shortened races.
The Whangarei 10-year-old, the most consistent driver of the series, was a comfortable winner over second-placed Logan Brown and Chelsea Herbert of Auckland.
The only other Whangarei competitor at the event, Cameron Taylor, finished a disappointing 14th in racing on the day and dropped his overall position by one place from 12th to 13th in the series.
McLean now has to contemplate how long he will stay in the class but he may stay on until the national championships next year.
• HOCKEY - Exchange student fires under-16s to title
The Northland under-16 boys team returned home from Rotorua last Saturday as first division champions after beating Wellington B 5-1 in the final.
The team redeemed themselves after being relegated from the premier division as under-15s, the previous year, and it was largely down to the players' attitudes at the tournament coach Richard Storey said.
"Our captain Gurrav or Ray-Ray Correa stepped up from the start, he took over the team talks and structure for the team and they were all so committed from the start," Storey said.
The team won most of their games easily with German exchange student Raoul Weidlich grabbing a double digit goal haul at the tournament.
"He was like Jonah Lomu out there, all we had to do was pass it to him and he'd finish it off," Storey said.
But with only six goals scored against them in their seven games, the side's defence was too difficult for the other teams to break down, with centre half Simon Davies the standout player across the park.
Storey said their pre-tournament training had also had a lot to do with the win.
"All the comments from the other coaches was that Northland had a very professional attitude and they were without doubt the fittest side in the tournament and therefore made fewer errors than other teams and our defensive record showed that," he said.
He said some of the players will remain in the same team next year and Storey hopes they can build on their successes so they can hold their own in the premier division next year.
After a promising start in the under-16 premier division national tournament in Christchurch the under-16 girls team faded to finish eighth.
They won their first three games convincingly but were knocked out of contention in the quarter-finals by Waikato 3-2.