Student Success Stories 

Marianna Sampani - Karate champion 

Staff and students have followed with interest Marianna Sampani's success and achievements as a  karate champion. Marianna has kindly shared her story and how she came to take up this sport which will be part of the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Due to her age she will not be competing at the Olympics but is participating in many Olympic Committee sanctioned events in the lead up. 

One of my best friends at the time, back in 2006, had just joined a local karate school. 

She, somehow, persuaded me to join one of the training sessions and so I did. Little did I know that I “would soon fall in love” with karate and since then it has become my life.

Moving from Greece to Australia I didn’t stop training at all and I knew I had to try my best ,since I wanted to be able to represent the country overseas. For me to manage and get into the National Team, I had (and still have) to compete in four basic competitions every year, with them being the Melbourne Open, the State Championships, the Australian Open and the National Championships. From 2016 to 2019, I have managed to come away with a total of 19 medals.

2018 was probably the year that played a major role in my career as an athlete, as I managed to reach all four finals and came away with four gold medals. 2019 has been even greater though, as I got selected to represent Australia at the 20th Senior Oceania Championships, reached the finals and came away with a silver.

I am now heading to Canada for the K1 Series A which is a pre-Olympic event and Croatia for the WKF U21 Cup. I am also excited to announce that just recently, I got selected to represent Australia at this year’s World Cadet/Junior/ U21 Karate Championships in Chile, later in the year. 

For me it is an absolute honour to be able to represent the country and carry the Australian flag on my chest. I hope I can make the country proud by performing at the best of my ability and I am more than excited to find out what the future holds for me.

Marianna Sampani (Year 12) 

Congratulations Marianna. We look forward to following your sporting journey and wish you luck with upcoming competitions.