Husband and wife to captain Australia at karate world champs

KARATE has been at the centre of Adam and Tracy Pearce’s love story - now the husband and wife will captain Australia at the world championships.

30/03/15 - Karate couple Adam and Tracy Pearce will captain Australia at next year's world championships in South Africa. Photo Tom Huntley

KARATE has been at the centre of Adam and Tracy Pearce’s love story.

The Old Reynella couple met at a karate tournament in 2000 and fell for one another while training.

Even Adam’s proposal was at Tokyo’s home of martial arts, Nippon Budokan, during their first world championships together in 2004.

“I had it all planned,” Adam says.

“I thought if you’re going to meet someone through karate, fall in love and that kind of stuff, what better time and place than to do it there.”

More than a decade on, Adam, 34, and Tracy, 36, are preparing for another world titles – this time as the national team’s male and female captains.

The Pearces, both black belts in shotokan karate, will lead a 10-strong Australian squad in Cape Town, South Africa in August next year.

It follows Adam winning the men’s kumite (fighting) at last month’s Australasian championships on the Gold Coast and Tracy finishing runner-up in the women’s category.

“It’s great to be captains together and it’s always a dream to represent Australia,” Tracy says.

Adam, an Australian representative since 1997, says his romance with Tracy, a national team member for 11 years, began after he took her under his wing.

“I used to hang out with her and do the flirty kind of thing when you’re a 19 year old,” he says.

“It took off from there.”

The Pearces started a karate club, based at Reynella Primary School, five years ago.

They keep their medals, trophies and other karate mementos at Adam’s mum’s place in a shed, which has been transformed into a dojo.

The sport is a family affair – Adam’s sisters Heather and Laura, nephew Calin and stepfather Chris are also black belts.

Tracy expects the couple’s children Blayke, 3, and Beau, 18 months, to eventually take up the sport.