The Burnaby Karate Academy showed itself to be the kumite capital of B.C., winning five of the provincial team’s eight gold medals in sparring at the KarateCanada national championships in Richmond last week.
B.C. martial artists also picked up an additional 10 gold in the kata, or forms, with Claudia Laos-Loo earning a bronze medal for Nikkei Karate in the individual under-21 female category.
Jusleen Virk won her fourth consecutive senior women’s national title, taking the under-50 kilogram title over Quebec’s Roxanne Coté.
Cindy Jacob, bronze medalist at u-68kg, shared a team gold with u-21 individual silver medal winners Gurkamal Gill and Harpreet Sidhu, who were individual runners-up at u-55 and plus-68kg, respectively. Both Gill and Sidhu also placed fifth in the senior weight class.
U-21 gold medalists Derek Chan and Brendan Ly also picked up a bronze medal each at the senior level at u-60 and plus-84kg.
Junior Isaac Mand won a bronze at u-55kg in the 16/17 boys’ category. Mand also placed fourth at u-21 and fifth at the senior level.
Cadet-aged martial artists Kieran Quan, Joel Tai, Aarjun Gill, Jacob Mand and Brendan Wise also earned individual kumite medals.
Quan won bronze at u-52kg, Tai a silver and Gill a bronze at u-57kg, Mand a silver at u-63kg and Wise with a bronze at u-70kg.
Alexandra Zaborniak won a gold medal in the junior women’s u-59kg weight division.
Pawan Sidhu won a runner-up medal at plus-59kg and Izzy Chan also came home with silver at u-48kg in the 16/17 girls’ category.
BKA cadet girls Zoe Fong, Stephi Zaborniak and Melissa Chan swept the top-three positions, respectively, at u-47kg in the 14/15 age class.
Burnaby also did well in the inaugural Youth Cup for 12/13 martial artists.
Julia Maclean won gold in the girls’ plus-43kg kumite, while Gurneet Sidhu, Caitlyn Lam, Michael Plunkett and Mark Wong were bronze medalists at their respective weights. Gurpatap Hothi placed fourth.
