Karate Canada National Championships held in Richmond in the olympic speed skating oval on Jan. 17-19 had local karate athlete Valerie Doyon receiving a silver medal in the 16-17 girls 59 kg kumite division.
Doyon had five matches, losing her first one to the eventual gold medalist.
This fortunate loss allowed Valerie to come through the back door in the repechage round and finally challenging for a gold medal.
Unfortunately for Doyon, she lost the final match to the same girl and ended up with silver. Because of the double round elimination, Doyon had to fight her twice, back to back, winning her first match and losing the second.
Local Campbell River Shito Ryu club Sensei and head coach for the Vancouver Island karate said, “This is a personal best for Valerie and she is happy with her performance, we only gauge our success on personal bests not medal results and she did fabulous.”
Next up is a possible Pan American Championship in Peru this September. Doyon has been training at the Campbell River Shito Ryu Karate Club for the past nine years.
Meanwhile, Campbell River’s Calen Clausen, black belt at Northwest Shito Kai Karate in Willow Point, was at the championships as a member of the BC squad of over 100 members.
Clausen competed in the Junior Mens (16-17 yrs) +76 Kg Kumite (Free Sparring) division.
During his event Clausen faced opponents from Quebec, Alberta and Ontario, defeating his Alberta and Ontario opponents with clean technique and precise timing.
He also met the Quebec team member twice during the event, loosing the silver medal match to him on their final meeting.
Clausen wound up third over all, and now has a chance to compete for Canada in some up coming events such as the North American Cup and the Pan Am Championships.
His bronze medal performance is the highlight of his career thus far with plenty of opportunities for great success on the horizon.
Clausen has been studying Karate since 2006 and is one of the assistant instructors at the NWSK Dojo.
He is also about to test for his second degree black belt in the Shito Ryu system of Karate Do.