Brianna Li and David White can bone up on their German.
The Vernon Taekwon-Do athlete and her coach have qualified for the world championships as part of Canada’s national team.
Li, 15, returned from the Canadian Taekwon-Do Federation’s national team selections and training camp in Montreal. Both Li and her coach, David White of Sundance Taekwon-Do, will be representing Canada in Inzell, Germany, in the Bavarian Alps, as part of the Canadian team.
The tournament will host approximately 1,200 black belt athletes from more 60 countries over five days of action-packed competition. The championships run from April 24-28 at the Max Aicher Arena.
The national training camp was held in Longueuil, Que. and served as an opportunity for athletes to train for events such as patterns, sparring, special technique (flying), and power breaking.
“This was also the chance for athletes to put their best foot forward and get selected for the team competition in which each country puts forward a well-rounded team to compete against one another in all the standard events,” said White.
Li, a French immersion student at W.L. Seaton Secondary, qualified for Junior Girls Hyperweight Sparring at the national championships back in November by winning gold in her division.
At the training camp, she was also selected to the national junior girls’ team for special technique, power breaking and sparring. She has also been chosen to compete individually in the Junior Girls special technique. This will be Li’s second time representing Canada after competing in Ireland in 2017 at the World Championships.
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Sundance Taekwon-Do Head Instructor White has also been selected as one of six coaches and will be travelling to Germany to coach athletes from across Canada.
This is White’s first time being selected as a national coach. He has served as a British Columbia team coach for eight years and worked with athletes of all ages and skill levels. He currently holds a 6th-degree black belt with the International Taekwon-Do Federation and has more than 26 years of experience teaching and training in Taekwon-Do.
The event in April will be streamed for free live on YouTube.
Those who would like more information about Taekwon-Do can go to www.sundancemartialarts.com or call 250-306-2285. Classes are now forming.
