Two months of dedicated training paid off handsomely last weekend for a group of Estevan Taekwon-do Club athletes.
These nine martial artists captured five first-place trophies, eight second-place finishes, three third-place showings and two fourth-place positions in patterns or sparring at the 29th annual Weston Warriors Master of the Arts Tournament at Toronto's Humber College on April 2. The Global Taekwon-do Federation (GTF) tournament, which is organized by Canadian GTF president Vito Palella and was attended by world GTF president Linda Park, attracted approximately 340 competitors from across Canada and the United States.
Don Dechief, a senior instructor with the Estevan Taekwon-do Club, said this was the first time the club has sent students to compete in the Weston Warriors Master of the Arts Tournament as members usually just attend closer-to-home tournaments in Saskatoon, Weyburn and Yorkton. He said the decision was made to invest in the expense of travelling to Toronto due to the importance of gaining national experience in the tournament.
“It's just a different atmosphere and the level of competition is that much higher,” said Dechief, noting the tournament will serve as a stepping stone in their quest to perform well at the 2018 GTF World Championships in South Korea. “It's important to our training basically to have them experience that and (it) notches up their training even more and that's important for growing as a club too.”
Taekwon-do athletes Beckey Franke, Hunter Wallster and Taylen Hirsch earned a first-place finish in patterns, while Trinda Jocelyn, Anusha Conquergood, Darson Gunnlaugson and Danielle Stephany captured second place. Simone Saigeon and Kylan Fichter each scored a third-place rankings in the competition.
Jocelyn and Gunnlaugson both won a first-place trophy in sparring, with Franke, Conquergood, Hirsch and Stephany taking second place. Saigeon came in third in the sport, while Wallster and Fichter finished in fourth place.
Dechief said members of the Estevan Taekwon-do Club always seem to have strong performances in patterns when attending tournaments and that continued to be the case in Toronto, but the results they achieved in sparring is a big improvement for the club. He said the members earned this showing through putting in countless hours of extra training to improve their agility, strength and stamina in the two months before the tournament.
“We trained very hard (and) lots of sacrifices were made in preparation for this tournament,” he said. “Everybody responded so well. We came back with a lot of trophies and the improvement I saw in all the students was really incredible. It was really good. Everybody was psyched up for it and prepared hard and worked hard and I saw the result when we got there. It was amazing.”
