A Westlock taekwondo athlete has done her town and province proud by bringing home a bronze medal from a national competition.
Kiana Hein, 12, was in Winnipeg for the 2011 Canadian National Championships on Jan. 29-31, where she won a bronze medal in the Junior B Female Bantam division.
“I feel it was really good,” she said. “It was a really good experience.”
In her first match, Hein was up against the eventual gold medallist from Ontario.
“I feel it was a pretty good fight. She was really tough,” she said.
Unfortunately, that is where Hein’s tournament would end, as she was defeated by her central Canadian rival.
Nonetheless, thanks to the intricacies of taekwondo tournaments, Hein’s performance was enough to earn her a tie for the bronze with another competitor from Ontario.
After her defeat, she returned to the stands to cheer on the rest of her provincial teammates.
Going into the tournament, she said she and her team were nervous that they were not very good compared to the stronger teams from Ontario and Quebec.
However, those fears were allayed with her and some of her teammates’ strong showings.
Bill Chahal is Hein’s coach and had been working intensively with her in the weeks leading up to nationals. He said he finds her to be one of his better students.
“She’s a lot more developed than other fighters her age,” he said, adding that although there are fighters who are faster and more agile than she is, she has the gameplay and mental aspect down.
“She just needs to catch up her technical skills, which are usually the easiest to work on,” he said.
Speaking to her performance at nationals, Chahal said a bronze is neither bad nor good.
“Losing in your first year is sort of acceptable,” he said, because the experience can be used to build for the future.
Hein has been doing taekwondo since she was six, and said she does it for a variety of reasons, including making new friends from across the province. “It’s also really fun fighting and learning all the techniques,” she said, adding she likes knowing that she’s safe thanks to her training.
