Recognized as one of British Columbia’s premier karate events, on November 12th the 17th Annual SATO CUP was held at BCIT Sportsplex in beautiful Burnaby, B.C. With over 400 competitors and 130 volunteers from Canada and the USA, Sato Cup hosted traditional karate events such as Kata and Kumite but also added some excitement to the tournament with team kata and weapons class events. Athletes as young as 7 years old competed and everyone’s spirits were high which made for an exciting (yes, loud) day of fun competition.
In the Black Belt category, one club dominated the Kata ring. In Women’s Kata, Shalene Lee of Kimeru Shotokan took the gold. From the same club, the Men’s Black Belt gold medal winner was Amr Fahmy.
In Kumite within same category of Black Belt, the Nikkei/Ladner/BMK karate club ruled the day as two of their athletes walked away with gold medals. Danielle Fookes for Women’s Kumite and for Men’s Kumite, Yuji Matsuda.
The Master’s Grand Champion was Clint Istace of Chiliwack Chito Ryu. Both the Jr. Girl’s and Jr. Boy’s Grand Champion were from Kimeru Shotokan and were Layan Haouaui and Isaiah Ingram. The Men’s Grand Champion was Will Wright from Taneda Karate and the Women’s Grand Champion was Nia Laos-Loo from Nikkei/Ladner/BMK.
Also a big congratulations to Isaac Naumenko from Vancouver Shitoryu who won the Vince Redfern Sportsmanship award.
This year the Team Kumite battle for the Sato Cup was between Team BC and Team Washington. Team BC won the Sato Cup this year following three exciting matches.
For full tournament results please click HERE.
For additional photos from the event, click HERE.
