Giselle Laronde-West, for­mer Miss World of 1986, won the gold medal in her ka­ta cat­e­go­ry of fe­male adults 35 years and over when the Shotokan karate in­ter­na­tion­al fed­er­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SKIFTT), led by head in­struc­tor Neville Ma­son, rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the 20th an­nu­al New York Open tra­di­tion­al karate do cham­pi­onships on Oc­to­ber 12.

The tour­na­ment was held at the Westch­ester com­mu­ni­ty col­lege in New York.

Each of the five com­peti­tors re­turned home with a tro­phy.

Laronde is a third dan black belt and has been com­pet­ing in karate for over 20 years. She placed fourth in the SKIF world cham­pi­onships in Greece in 2009 and ob­tained a bronze medal at the same com­pe­ti­tion in Aus­tralia in 2012.

The team, which was led by head in­struc­tor Neville Ma­son, al­so brought home bronze medals through Re­naul­do Gor­don, Chen­nise Charles and Kristoff West.

Gor­don (2nd dan) was able to se­cure the bronze tro­phy in both ka­ta and ku­mite, while C Charles (2nd dan) and West (Shodan–son of Giselle) al­so re­ceived a bronze tro­phy in ka­ta, in their re­spec­tive di­vi­sions.