Thirteen competitors from the KEES Yorkton Taekwondo club participated at the fourth Annual Iron Fist Taekwondo Club Challenge in Winnipeg. The event was hosted by Iron Fist Taekwondo. The Iron Fist have been established in Winnipeg for more than 25 years, making this event a prestigous competition for the KEES Taekwondo team.
The event was a welcome participation and experience opportunity for our junior elite and developing future elite players.
The event was capped at 260 martial artists from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and northern USA. There was over 32 clubs in attendance this year. The events consisted of sparring (Kyorugi), patterns (Poomsae) and breaking (Kyupka). Athletes could enter up to three events. The competition in most divisions was very high this year, making the tournament one of very high intensity.
Coaches for this event were Master Wayne Mitchell, Sam Lohnes and Shane Varjassy.
There were many notable results for KEES to take away from the June tournament. Tyana Daigneault came away as a triple medalist, earning the top medal haul for KEES. Tyler Buenneke, Kallie Buenneke, Nathan Head and Josiah Head showed strong performance as double medalists.
Tyler Buenneke was the gold medalist in the Junior B Black belt light weight sparring division winning all two tough matches against taller opponents. Nathan Head had opponents with much higher belts but his performance was much superior to even those advanced players. He decimated his opponent in one of his three games by a score of 27 to 0. Zane Chopik competed in the black belt division for his first time. In the gold medal match, Zane was ahead by three points. As the time was running down his opponent kept a high level of pressure on that ended the game with a 9 to 8 score.
Zane settled for the Silver medal. Tyana Daigneault and Janaya Head met each other in the third match for the gold medal. It was a very exciting match that went to overtime. Tyana came out on top this time with the gold.
Complete results are:
Sam Lohnes- Men's Black Belt Middle-weight: Silver
Shane Varjassy- Junior Boys A Black Belt Middleweight: Bronze
Eric Fookes- Junior Boys A Black Belt Light: Bronze
Kathryn Lohnes- Junior Girls A Black Belt Middle: Bronze
Zane Chopik- Pee Wee Boys Black Belt Light:Silver
Tyler Buenneke-Junior B Boys Black Belt Light: Gold/Bronze
Justin Fookes- Pee Wee Boys Advanced Light: Gold
Kallie Buenneke - Pee Wee Girls Advanced Light: Gold/Gold
Janaya Head- Pee Wee Girls Intermediate Light: Silver
Josiah Head- Pee Wee Boys Advanced Heavy: Silver/Gold
Nathan Head- Pee Wee Boys Intermediate Middle: Gold/Silver
Tyana Daigneault- Pee Wee Girls Intermediate Light: Gold/Gold/Silver
