Members of Sundance Taekwon-do from Kelowna and Vernon had a good event at the 2013 International Tae Kwon Do Federation Provincial Championships at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. The ITF B.C. Championships, held Feb. 10, featured 290 competitors from different clubs all over British Columbia. Sundance Tae Kwon Do sent a team of 14 competitors and brought home a total of 22 medals. All of the members worked extremely hard in their preparations to bring in eight gold, four silver and 11 bronze.
Abbie Bennett, currently the top ranked junior light-heavyweight in the country, had a very fruitful day taking gold in both patterns and sparring competition.
Fellow competitor Leah Werry won both second degree black belt patterns and women’s black belt sparring. Brad Cotey took gold in men’s first degree patterns and silver in men’s heavyweight sparring. Junior male Brett bell took a bronze in first degree patterns and silver in the junior boys heavyweight sparring. Kelly Kinniburgh took home bronze in both women’s third degree patterns and women’s black belt sparring.
In colour belt competition several Sundance members were also successful. Maira Wilson took home the gold in bantam girls red belt patterns and bronze in sparring while her older sister Ciara Wilson took bronze in pre-junior red belt patterns and sparring.
Blue belt girls Dannon MacKay and Sarah Crerar took home gold medals in heavy weight and light weight sparring categories respectively. They also each earned bronze medals in the bantam girls blue belt patterns division. Dannon’s younger brother Cole MacKay took bronze in the bantam boys blue belt sparring.
The Bennett brothers also saw some success at the tournament with older brother Jacob Bennett earning a bronze in pre-junior boys red belt light weight sparring. His brother Aidan Bennett won a hard fought silver medal in the bantam red belt light weight sparring division. Youngest brother Charlie Bennett put in a great effort but did not medal.
Sundance Head Instructor and Coach David White was also in competition, taking the gold medal in Men’s fourth degree patterns and a bronze in men’s power breaking.
“Our members all put forth a great effort and trained incredibly hard for this event and we could not be more proud as a school. This was a great learning experience for all of us,” said head coach David White, an International Instructor and Examiner with the International Tae Kwon Do Federation.
Up next for the members of Sundance is the Western Canadian Championships to be held on April 13 in Regina, Saskatchewan where several of the black belt competitors will continue to earn seeding points for the Canadian Nationals in hopes of qualifying to represent Canada at the ITF World Championships held in Benidorm, Spain in October.
The Canadian National Championships will be held in Quebec City, Quebec on May 17 and 18 where the school expects to have six competitors in attendance.
