Martial artists from the Bulkley Valley are back from WKU (World Kickboxing and Karate Union) Nationals in Calgary with some hardware.
Shogun Dojo’s Kiyoshi Marwan Abu Khadra of Smithers had great success on May 6 and 7 with each of his students medalling and qualifying for the World Championships.
In the adult divisions, Darren MacDonald picked up three gold and Taraq Abu Khandra won two gold.
For the youth divisions Lando Ball won two gold; Scotia Lancaster won three; Justice Lancaster won one gold, one silver and one bronze; Sarafim Dwyer won one gold and Delilah Souter won one gold and one bronze.
Abu Khadra said Scotia Lancaster’s performance stood out for him.
“She performed absolutely better than anyone else,” he said. “As an instructor I look at my students, I look at what they can and can’t do and she can do everything. She puts so much effort and time into training and the outcome was to expect it this way.”
In total, they brought home 13 Gold medals, one silver medal and two Bronze medals all qualifying to go to the WKU World Karate Championships, October 23-29 in Wales. He said there will be between 3,000-5,000 competitors.
He said that everyone wants to go but isn’t sure yet who will go as it is very costly to get there.
He is hoping that the world championships will be held in Canada next year, as it was supposed to two years ago but the pandemic squashed those plans.