Nine martial artists from RMA Karate Centres in Barrie were in London taking part in the World Karate & Kickboxing Commission’s Ontario qualifiers. Held at the London convention centre the RMA students competed in several individual events for the chance to advance to the national team qualifiers next month in Ottawa.
The Ontario qualifiers were tough with some divisions having as many as 40 competitors vying for top spot and wanting to come home with some hardware. Only the top eight of each division advance to the national team trials and every martial artist there traveled to London in hopes of being one step closer to being on Canada’s team.
Second degree black belt Tara Krale gave her best performance to date in the women’s 35 years and over divisions winning gold in Chinese forms, gold in Korean forms, gold in freestyle forms, gold in creative weapons, gold in point sparring, silver in musical weapons, silver in continuous sparring, and fourth place in both the traditional weapons and traditional forms divisions.
First degree black belt Tara Graham gave a strong demonstration of skill in the women’s 35 years and over divisions winning silver in Chinese forms, silver in Korean forms, bronze in Traditional weapons and placed fifth in traditional forms.
Eleven-year-old junior black belt Sale Berube won gold in Korean forms, silver in Chinese forms, silver in creative weapons, placed fourth in the traditional weapons, fifth in traditional forms and sixth place in musical weapons.
Purple belt Shamus Berube continues to fine tune demonstrating his skill in the men’s 35 years and over divisions winning gold in traditional weapons, gold in traditional forms and silver in the point sparring division.
Wushu student Eden McGuire gave proof her flair for the Chinese martial art (Wushu) was difficult to challenge in the girls’ 16/17 age group winning gold in the Chinese forms and silver in the traditional weapons.
Purple belt Ella Zenon was all smiles after competing in the girls 11/12 age group winning gold in the Korean forms and placing fourth in the Chinese forms division.
Purple belt Jacob Allen thought he would give the Ontario qualifiers a shot and his effort gave positive results in the boys 13 to 15 age group placing fifth in the traditional weapons division.
In the 10 and under girls traditional weapons, blue belt Alyson Caron demonstrated determination placing eighth in the division.
His first competition of the year blue belt Wesley Wu gave his personal best in the largest divisions of the event. Wu was a finalist in both the traditional forms and creative weapons divisions.
The eight who will be traveling to Ottawa next month have no time to rest on their medal haul as they continue to train even harder for the national team trials. They are already back in the karate school training in preparation for next month’s event.
For more information about martial arts classes in Barrie visit www.rmakarate.com .
