"It was Jan. 20, 2007," she said.

Asia, 10, has been practicing karate for three years, and has already racked up a treasure trove of medals, including four golds in the AAU North Carolina District Karate Championship at Gateway YMCA in Winston-Salem March 1.

Last year, she went undefeated in all of her competitions, earning 24 gold medals, her mother, Cyndy Yu-Robinson, said.

Asia has been around karate all her life. Her parents own Triangle's Best Karate school in North Raleigh. The karate school sent 31 athletes to the district championship and all of them won medals, Yu-Robinson said.

On March 21, Asia will travel with her mother to Japan for 10 days to compete in two tournaments and train in an international environment.

"I'm looking forward to having fun and meeting new people," Asia said.

Asia is a fourth grader at Underwood Elementary School, and her favorite subjects are science and math.

She maintains discipline in karate, rising at 6 a.m. daily for the first of twice-a-day training that includes practicing her moves and working on strength and conditioning.

She hopes to continue practicing karate into adulthood and would like to be an instructor someday.

"I was born in karate," she said. "I'll be doing it until the day I die."