On August 20-22 in Montreal, Karate Canada held the Pan-American championship in karate for juniors.
We all were happy to see this calibre event on Canadian soil. This does not happen often, the next time could be in a few decades. The tournament was held at a great venue perfectly fit to this level event. Our club had 3 competitors in the Canadian National Team : Daniel Gaysinsky(14-15yo -57kg ), Vadim Semenikhine (14-15yo -70 kg ) and Artyom Radzichovski (16-17yo plus 76 kg). For all our guys it was the first year on the National Team and first of this level of competition.
The First day of competitions (august 20th) was represented mostly by 12-13yr and 14-15yr divisions. More then half of the day Canadian coaches and athletes did not take part in the competition…it was 12-13yr division…by some reason our sport officials decided that 12-13yr were too young to compete at national and international levels! In my opinion it was the main reason for the Canadians failure at junior level. Obviously, somebody with two years experience on the international stage is more prepared mentally and technically to be on the podium. Especially competing with face masks (new WKF rules for 12-13 and 14-15yo) which made our athletes even more uncomfortable, our Provincial and National organizations don’t enforce this rule, masks change distance and visibility and everyone needs months and months to get used to it. For Daniel and Vadim this was the main obstacle to get on the podium this time (Both lost in bronze medal matches). {gallery}stories/2010/08/sig_panam:260:170:1:2{/gallery}
Artyom competed next day but also lost by making excessive contact against the Venezuelan athlete. This was a great opportunity for our club athletes to get experience and the feeling of “big stage competitions“ and will motivate them to work harder (and smarter) next season. We are all looking forward to the future and our goal is set high-to win the world championship!
Sensei R.Saltikov