Members of Sundance Taekwon-do achieved huge success at the 2017 International Taekwon-do Federation BC Cup Championships last Saturday at UBC Okanagan.
The tournament featured 200 competitors from 17 clubs across B.C. Sundance Taekwon-do in Vernon, who hosted the event, sent a team of 75 and brought home a huge medal haul.
Claiming three gold medals was local black belt Nicholas Tiourine, 17, winning the Junior Boys Black Belt sparring category. He also took gold in both breaking categories for power and special technique which features high flying and very athletic performances.
Also in Black belt competition, Sundance member Ciara Wilson, 17, garnered a gold medal in junior girls lightweight sparring and bronze in the patterns. She also took a gold medal in the team sparring category along with her sister Maira Wilson, 14. Maira also took a bronze in the lightweight individual sparring. Brianna Li took home a gold in heavyweight sparring, gold in power breaking and silver in team sparring.
Brothers Travis and Tyler Barker faced off in the finals for the junior black belt patterns category with younger brother Tyler besting his older brother for the gold in a highly contested match with both competitors showing exceptional skill.
Also competing in black belt were sister and brother Elyse and Matthew Johnston. Matthew took home gold in pre-junior patterns and also took a gold in his sparring category while older sister Elyse brought a silver in the junior girls lightweight sparring category and also took silver in team sparring
Several Sundance colour belts were also successful in their portion of the competition with it being many of the member’s first tournament with many students making it to the podium.
“This was a great opportunity for our members to learn about competing in an event close to home and was a great chance to build camaraderie within out team” – said coach David White.
Sundance Taekwon-Do will send a team of eight to the CTFI Canadian Nationals and Selection, June 2-3, in Montreal, including black belt competitors Brianna Li, Nicholas Tiourine, Elyse Johnston, Andy Leung and David White.