Last weekend saw the return to karate competition in a significant way with Karate Canada hosting the 2022 Karate Canada Senior Team Trials in Calgary!
BC Team Director, Rodney Hobson, felt relief and excitement about the long-awaited opportunity to take a team of BC athletes to a major competition. “It has been more than two years since we’ve been able to attend National level events, so myself and the whole BC Team were extremely happy to getting back to it”, stated Hobson. “Overall, given the challenges of hosting an event during a pandemic with all the safety procedures and protocols, the event went off very well and we thank our Karate Alberta hosts for helping to make it happen”, he continued.
Hobson went on to praise the entire BC Team for their efforts and results. “The whole team was amazing at the event”, he stated, “and I can’t give enough thanks to the support and professionalism displayed by the BC Team Staff Coaches: Ashtin Callaghan, Toshi Uchiage and Hamid Tarighatbin.” “We also couldn’t have done this without the tremendous teamwork and athlete support from the club coaches: Kraig Devlin, Valentyna Zolotarova, Shaun Dhillon and Chantelle Grafton“, he exclaimed.
The selection event determines which athletes will be eligible to represent Canada at the upcoming Senior Pan-American Championships in Curacao in May.
Results:
GOLD – Claudia Laos-Loo, Womens Kata
GOLD – Fernando Aguilera, Men’s +84kg
SILVER – Melissa Chan, Women’s -50kg
SILVER – Zach Saito, Men’s -60kg
BRONZE – Jusleen Virk, Women’s -50kg
BRONZE – Maansi Virk, Women’s -55kg
BRONZE – Sydney Porter, Women’s -55kg
BRONZE – Isaiah Ingram, Men’s -67kg
4th – Jocelyn Fennell, Women’s -61kg
4th – Ava Noori, Women’s -68kg
4th – Warren Grafton, Men’s -84kg
Honorable mentions go to Kiandokht Ghodsi, Sofia Devlin, Carson Poole and Sepehr Nouri for their great matches!
