The Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards is Canada’s longest-running sport recognition event, honouring BC’s best athletes, coaches and officials in 18 different categories. The efforts and achievements of Khyber Barnett (athlete) and Bob Mooney (volunteer) in 2015 was celebrated at the Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards banquet in Vancouver this past March 10th.
Karate BC/Karate Canada athlete Khyber Barnet
t was identified by Sport BC as one of the three top athletes under the age of 19 in British Columbia across all sports. In 2015 alone, Khyber took the podium at the BC Provincial Tournament for Kata, Team Kata and Kumite. Khyber was awarded both Jr Male Athlete of the Year for Karate BC and the Provincial Male Grand Champion for 2015. Khyber also received the National Junior Male Athlete of the Year Award from Karate Canada in 2015, after winning gold in both Individual and Team Kata. At an international level, Khyber won the gold medal at the Jr International Karate Cup, silver at the North American Cup and pulled out a remarkable double medal haul at the prestigious USA Open, earning both a gold and a bronze medal. Khyber followed this up by representing Canada at the Jr Pan American Karate Championships in Bolivia. In November, Khyber took the # 7 spot in the Top 10 at the Under 21 and Jr World Championships in Indonesia.
Bob Mooney received the Sport BC President’s Award. Bob was recognized for his generous service at karate events and to Karate BC. Specifically, Bob has stepped up as a volunteer for over 20 years for Karate BC and Karate Canada events where he has tirelessly put in countless volunteer hours. Bob can always be relied upon to contribute to any task including event set up , tear down, clean up, packing up and delivering mats. Sensei Mooney gives so much of his time even though he also runs a Karate club, studies Kobudo, runs a program at SFU, has a family of 4 and works full time. Karate BC is grateful for the efforts as remarkable volunteers such as Bob Mooney.
