Vernon’s Kal Tire Place was awash with taekwondo action over the weekend, as the Sundance Martial Arts gym hosted the 2023 Canadian Taekwondo Federation International (CTFI) National Championships.
The two day event saw over 550 competitors from all across the country come out and perform their greatest taekwondo skills.
Sundance Martial Arts was set to host the competition back in 2021, before COVID had it postponed.
Saturday had the opening ceremonies and kids perform, while Sunday was all about the black belts. Numerous individual and team sparring matches occurred across the six mats set up on the arena floor.
Among the competitors pictured on Sunday were two from Vernon, Jayden Li and Shelby Rogers.
Li competed in the age 14/17 male junior black belt category, while Rogers was in the female adult category.
Several of the black belt events had national team spots on the line. The 16th annual junior and senior ITF World Taekwondo Championships take place this September in Tampere, Finland.
“The action and level was so incredibly high on Sunday. It was a great event,” said David White, technical director at Sundance Martial Arts.
More information on the championships can be found at ctfi.org.
