Several Barrie martial artists attended the Ontario Grand
Nationals martial arts competition in London and came back home with plenty of
hardware. The event that attracted
martial artists from across the country and the United States was filled
wall-to-wall with top notch athletes and the karate kids from RMA Karate
Centres did not disappoint.
Tressa Young a black belt instructor at RMA did quite well for
herself after moving up an age class to compete among the women age 18 yrs
& over. The seventeen year old
pushed her skills to the edge winning first place in traditional weapons,
traditional forms, musical forms, lightweight fighting and also won second
place in creative weapons. Young advanced
to the grand champion divisions for weapons, forms and sparring. Young was eliminated in the first round of
the fighting grand championships losing her match to top American heavy middleweight
fighter Morgan Plowden. Young was also
defeated in the adult forms & weapons grand championship division but was
all smiles from the experience.
“I wanted to move up an age class because these are the competitors
I will be against next year. I was
fortunate that the promoter of the event okayed it giving me the foundation and
experience I need not only for my upcoming competition at the 2012 worlds in
Montreal this October but for next year’s tournament season” Young stated.
Black belts Samantha MacDonald gave a strong performance at the
event competing as a black belt for the first time since receiving her new rank
this September. The 14-year-old won first place in traditional
weapons, first place in traditional forms and second place in musical weapons.
Green belt Liam North did well winning first in musical division, second
in sparring and third in both the weapons and forms divisions. North also moved up a belt division from
intermediate to advanced for an extra sparring division winning first place.
Green belt Sale Berube won third place in both the musical
division and the sparring division. Red belt Katie Belliveau continues to give her best with steady
improvement winning fourth place in sparring.
Advanced brown belt Tyler Maroudas-Zenon gave a strong performance
winning first place in weapons and second in forms. Younger sister Brooke Zenon continues to
improve winning fourth in sparring and finalist in both the weapons and forms
divisions.
Red belt Paul M placed first in sparring and was a finalist
in forms while Alex M placed first in sparring.
RMA Karate Centres – www.rmakarate.com
