Northwest Shito Kai Karate and Martial Arts Source took a team of three athletes to the 15th annual Pan American Shito Ryu Karate Do Championships in Gatineau, Quebec on Aug. 1.
These three young competitors represented Campbell River and Canada with peak performances. NWSK instructor and Canadian team coach Nigel Nikolaisen accompanied Cohan Caflisch, Jenna Scott and Chandra Rowden to the event that brought in more than 500 competitors from around the continent.
Teams and supporters from Canada, Mexico, U.S.A, Venezuela, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and an invited team from Japan filled the amazing new “Gatineau Sports Center” August 4 and 5 for what proved to be a world class event for the sport of karate in Canada. The juniors competed Saturday while the adults and elite divisions wrapped up the weekend on Sunday.
The young Campbell Riverites all competed Sat., Aug. 4.
Scott was the first to compete. In her Kata (Patterns/Routines) divisions Scott placed first after a 3-2 decision by the judges against a fellow Canadian. When it came to her Kumite (Free Sparring) she won her gold me match with a convincing lead of 5-2 and Scott was crowned Grand Champion of the girls under 8 years old division!
Her good friend and teammate Caflisch also walked away with some impressive hardware after his stellar performance. Caflisch made it to the gold medal rounds in both of his entered events in the boys under 10 category. Caflisch wound up facing opponents from Venezuala and the U.S.A and took home silver medals from his Kata and Kumite events.
Finishing off the day was NWSK team captain Rowden in the under 14 girls division. She had worked very hard sacrificing a huge amount of the summer alongside her younger teammates, putting extra training sessions in daily and attending weekly fundraisers. Though her performance was her best to date, unfortunately Rowden wound up losing her bronze medal kata match to a girl from Quebec in a 4-1 decision. Rowden could not compete in Kumite due to injury. These three young stars rose to the occasion with grace and style, representing their home, country, classmates and martial art with class.