Athabasca’s Wa-No Kaze Kai Karate Club was well represented at a tournament in Montreal earlier this month.
Shihan Cindy Jones and Sensei Daryl Jones accompanied four of their students to the Kentokukan Classic Children’s Tournament on Dec. 3. The local athletes qualified for the tournament during a competition held in Athabasca last month.
Attending the event in Montreal were first degree black belt Alyssa Day, junior brown belt Evan Day, junior green belt Erin Bahry and orange belt Nate Day, and all of them performed admirably while representing their club and community well, according to Shihan Jones.
“It’s hard to know how you’re going to stand up to other karate clubs because it’s been a long time since we’ve been to a tournament. (But) I was really pleased,” she said.
The four Athabasca students certainly made themselves stand out from the pack of 109 competitors, many of them from Quebec, Ontario and New York. Alyssa Day won gold in shiai (sparring) while Nate Day earned a bronze in kata (forms) and Erin Bahry nabbed a bronze in shiai. Evan Day also performed well with a fourth place finish in kata.
Both Shihan and Sensei Jones served as referees and judges during the busy tournament, which packed a local school gymnasium with seven competition areas.
This tournament was unique in that the attending schools all study Shorinjiryu Kentokukan Karate, so the Athabasca students were able to test their skill and understanding of their martial art against others.
Though the tournament was obviously the highlight of the trip, the group was also able to take in a lot of the sights of Montreal.
The local martial arts practitioners are now once again working hard in their classes in the Whispering Hills Primary School gymnasium.
