78 Medals, Five Team USA Selections, One World Podium: A Record Summer for Chicago-Area Karate Students
Fonseca Martial Arts closed its strongest season yet — with a smaller team than last year. FMA students took 78 medals
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Fonseca Martial Arts closed its strongest season yet — with a smaller team than last year. FMA students took 78 medals (25 gold, 21 silver, 32 bronze) at AAU Karate Nationals, plus two Kumite Grand Champions. At USA Karate Team Trials, three students made the Junior National Team and two instructors made the Senior team. Cleo Roth earned kumite silver at the WUKF World Championships in Romania. Fall brings Olympic-level seminars and the Fonseca Cup on Oct. 24 in Wood Dale.
Evanston, IL August 10, 2026 –(PR.com)– Fonseca Martial Arts, with five schools across Chicago and the North Shore, delivered the strongest competition season in its history this summer — and did it with a smaller roster than the year before.
At the AAU Karate National Championships, held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, FMA athletes earned 78 medals — 25 gold, 21 silver, and 32 bronze — across kata, kumite, kobudo, team, and family divisions. Otylia Moore and Sofia Frede were each named Kumite Grand Champion of their divisions, capping a team performance that spanned the program’s youngest competitors to its karate parents. The AAU has been home to FMA’s competition program for 23 years, and its national championships remain the proving ground where the schools’ competitors are built.
“The AAU is where our program grew up. Seventy-eight medals from a smaller team says everything about the depth the AAU develops in our students, from six-year-olds to their parents,” said John Fonseca, founder of Fonseca Martial Arts.
That depth carried onto the national team stage. At the USA Karate National Championships & Team Trials, held in Spokane, Washington, Bradley Cortez-Bzdusek., Otylia Moore, and Samantha Hoffman earned places on the USA Karate Junior National Team, while two FMA instructors made the Senior National Team: Joseph Tolentino, who won the –60 kg Elite Kumite national title without conceding a single point the entire tournament, and Machi Baldis, who qualified with Elite Kumite bronze. FMA athletes took 4 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze at the Trials, including a double-medal weekend from Bradley Cortez-Bzdusek. — Elite Kumite gold at 14–15 and bronze against older competitors at 16–17.
Internationally, Cleo Roth earned silver in kumite at the WUKF World Championships in Romania, where Andrijana Ignjatic placed fifth in the world in both kata and kobudo and Isaac Rabinovich advanced to the second round in kumite.
The results headline a landmark fall for the program:
• September 13 — seminar with Uğur Aktaş (Turkey), Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalist in kumite and multiple-time European champion.
• October 22–23 — seminar with Roksanda Atanasov (Serbia), the coach who guided Jovana Preković from white belt to Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold.
• October 24 — the Fonseca Cup, the schools’ annual tournament, at Adversity Volleyball Center in Wood Dale, IL.
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Fonseca Martial Arts operates locations in Evanston, Wilmette, Glenview, Park Ridge, and Chicago’s Roscoe Village. Families interested in classes or the competition program can visit fonsecamartialarts.com or any location.
Contact Information:
Fonseca Martial Arts
John Fonseca
847-866-0200
Contact via Email
www.fonsecamartialarts.com/
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