Morning Star Staff
Sundance Taekwon-Do members claimed 32 medals, including nine gold, in the 2015 International Taekwon-do Federation North American and Caribbean Championships at the Richmond Olympic Oval last weekend.
Sundance sent a team of 25 competitors and also earned 11 silver and 12 bronze in a field of 400.
Cruising to gold and the North American champion title was local black belt Ciara Wilson in junior girls. She won the middleweight sparring.
Ciara’s younger sister, Maira Wilson, secured silver in in pre-junior girls lightweight sparring and a bronze in first-degree girls patterns.
Kelly Windsor pocketed North American gold in the women’s lightheavyweight and helped B.C. take silver in team sparring. She also bagged a bronze in women’s third-degree black belt patterns.
Instructor Andy Leung took home silver in the men’s light heavyweight sparring category and head coach and instructor David White won silver in men’s fourth-sixth degree patterns. White also had silver with the BC men’s sparring team.
Mitchell Alexander, in his first tournament as a black belt, won gold with the B.C. sparring team.
Brothers Travis and Tyler Barker both had very strong showings in their black belt competition. Older brother Travis took home silver in junior boys second-degree patterns while his younger brother Tyler had the same result in pre-junior boys first-degree patterns.
The Li family had a very successful outing with Brianna Li, 12, winning gold in pre-junior girls red belt sparring and bronze in patterns. Brother Jayden Li, 10, also took gold in the bantam boys red belt patterns category and bronze in sparring. Youngest brother Lucas, six, in his first tournament, took home a bronze in yellow belt patterns. Father Ted won a gold in the super senior blue and red belt sparring and bronze in patterns.
“This was a great showing by some of our most dedicated members; we couldn’t be prouder as a school and as a community” said David White, Sundance head coach and an International instructor and examiner with the ITF.
Mark Alexander took silver in super senior blue and red belt sparring, while Dwayne Venton won a bronze in super senior blue and red belt sparring.
Isla Joly was also in her first competition and took a bronze in mini girls yellow belt patterns. Isabelle Phillips found some success in the mini girls green belt category with a silver medal in sparring and Calvin Tse won a bronze in junior boys blue belt sparring.
Mathew Johnston managed gold in Pee Wee boys red belt sparring and silver in patterns. Amanda Froland won the gold in women’s white belt patterns and silver in sparring.
Owen Lewis registered bronze in bantam boys blue belt sparring. Katia Zaretzki garnered gold in her pre-junior white belt patterns category and also taking a bronze in sparring.
“Our members worked very hard to be prepared for this large event. This was the largest tournament held in B.C. in recent years and our athletes all stepped up to the plate and represented us very well,” said White.
Sundance has several upcoming events including the World Cup, set for Budapest, Hungary in October, 2016. Call White at 250-306-2285.
