Karen Roberts

By Don Werner

 

Karen started judo at the age of seven at St Crispin’s Sports Centre in Wokingham, but was quickly persuaded by the coach to join Pinewood as he thought she had great potential. How right he was!

 

Like most other judoka, Karen progressed through the various levels to the Advanced Class and admits to being influenced by training with Nik Fairbrother. She actually went to the Barcelona Olympics and watched Nik win the silver medal and it inspired her to want to do the same thing. Two months later she won the Junior World Title in Argentina. She then went on to take a bronze in the Junior Europeans later that year. These two results helped her to win the first Junior Sports Personality award in London that November.

 

 

In May 1994 she surprised everyone by winning the British Open and then confirmed her number one position by winning the Junior Europeans in Portugal. Unfortunately, she then tore both cruciate ligaments and had to have her left knee joint reconstructed. This necessitated a period of rehabilitation and it took a while for her to regain her position.

 

Karen completed her secondary education at the Holt School in Wokingham gaining nine GCSE’s and two “A” levels. She then went to work with Xtrac Ltd., a leading company in motor sports transmissions. The Management were impressed with her interest in metals and her aptitude and decided to sponsor her through university. She applied to Brunel a year later and was accepted onto the Materials Science and Engineering course.

 

Combining university studies with a high level sporting career requires a great deal of dedication, excellent organisation and hard work. Karen has all of these skills in abundance. She has just graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering First Class Honours Degree winning the University prize, Graham Hawkes prize, the Institute of Materials prize and the Margaret Tier prize all at the same time, for good measure. The conferment of her degree was a very proud moment for her family and friends. It was not surprising that Brunel University offered to sponsor her for a Ph.D. researching “metal processing in a semisolid state”. Xtrac must have also felt that their sponsorship had been an excellent investment and are still prepared to sponsor Karen and pay her to work during her holiday periods.

 

Being at university gave Karen the chance to enter the World Student Games and she has won various medals at the three World Championships she has been selected to attend. She has also been an important part of the excellent team results, which have been achieved during those years. The individual gold has eluded her so far but studying for a Ph.D. gives her further chances to achieve this goal.

 

Karen’s best international result came on home turf at the Birmingham World Championships in 1999. She won the bronze medal at 63kgs. and was immediately selected for the Olympics. Sydney was an experience she will never forget, even though she did not achieve a medal. It has inspired her to go on to Athens and to do well in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.

 

Like Nik, she has received many sporting accolades, appeared on television, met famous people and worked for sporting bodies such as the B.O.A and the UK Sports Council. She is also an excellent coach but has little time to pursue this channel while she is still competing.

 

Don has coached Karen for over fifteen years and she finds him her biggest inspiration, mentor and motivator. She excels at Newaza. Quoting Don, she says, “People always fall to the floor – they don’t float upwards. In judo there are three ways to win using newaza compared to one in tachiwaza – so groundwork is very important to me”. She has won three British Open Titles and numerous international and national medals with her groundwork. Her opponents find her very strong and difficult to move around.

 

Karen cannot speak highly enough of her family. They give her all the support she could possibly want and have helped her to keep her feet firmly on the floor and her judo and studies going. When she is not studying or competing, she enjoys spending time generally relaxing with them, eating out or a theatre trip. She finds this a very good way of recuperating and recharging her batteries. Her ambitions in life are to remain healthy, enjoy what she is doing and maintain the happiness she is currently experiencing.

 

On the judo front, she would like to win gold medals in the 2003 World Championships in Osaka and the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. Karen has numerous medals and awards but the important ones are:

 

· 2003 Barcelona Open - Bronze

 

· 2003 Paris Super A Tournament - 5th Place

 

· 2002 Commonwealth Games - Gold

 

· 2002 Senior European Championships - Silver

 

. 2001 British Open - Gold

 

. 2000 Sydney Olympic Team

 

· 2000 British Open Silver

 

· 1999 Senior World Championships - Bronze

 

· 1999 World Student Game - Silver

 

· 1999 Sydney Test Event Silver

 

· 1999 Fukuoka Cup - 5th Place

 

· 1999 British Open - Gold

 

· 1999 Austrian "A" Tournament - Gold

 

· 1998 Dutch "A" Tournament - Bronze

 

· 1994 British Open - Gold

 

· 1994 Junior European Championships - Gold

 

· 1992 Junior World Championships - Gold

 

· 1992 Junior European Championships - Bronze

 

· 1992 US Senior National Championship - 1st place

 

· 1992 US Junior Olympic Championship – 1st place

 

· 1992 US International Invitational - 3rd place