Western Canada’s longest-serving martial arts event, the Western Canadian Karate Championships was a success.
On Saturday the 43rd annual event, which is sanctioned by the Canadian Zen Karate-Do Association welcomed 250 participants to Lindsay Thurber High School.
Lyle Cheney, master instructor at Cheney’s Zen Karate and Kickboxing said it went really well.
“The numbers I think are still a little bit down because we’re still recovering from COVID-19. Overall it was a decent turnout and the day went without a hitch,” he said.
The Western Canadian Karate Championships is open to all different style types of martial arts and pre-pandemic would typically have larger numbers of competitors. This year they had more children and fewer adults all from Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. but are slowly getting their numbers back.
“Some years you get more than others but as far as the turnout and the enthusiasm of the competitors it was very successful,” he said.
“In the black belt division, all of our people [at Cheney’s Zen Karate and Kickboxing] placed first so that was good to see.”
The Western Canadian Karate Championships is one of three major tournaments in the region. The other two are the Calgary Open Martial Arts Championships and the Summit Martial Arts Championships which is also in Calgary.
Cheney has helped organize the event since 1987 which he said is a source of pride for everyone involved to keep it going.
In the men’s black belt competition, the winner was Hector Jordan, who is a former Red Deer resident and is now an instructor in Calgary. On the women’s black belt side, Raven Cheney from Red Deer took home the win. Jordan was also named the black belt grand champion in sparring.
The junior black belt champion was Red Deer’s Owen Gadiano who was just fresh off a win at nationals the weekend prior in Ottawa. He’ll be representing Canada at the World Championships in October.