Two members of the BV/Rossland Chito Ryu Karate Dojo travelled to Richmond last weekend with hundreds of other qualifiers from across the province. They met at the Olympic Oval to compete in the KBC Karate Provincial Championships.
Scott Sheldo and Megan Campsall were the only practicioners to qualify from the Kootenay Boundary area this year.
The competition began with a demonstration of Okinawan traditional drumming and dance amidst the cacophony of a six ring event, which saw live broadcast online through Viasport and garnered hundreds of spectators.
Competing in her first provincial tournament was Fruitvale’s Campsall in 10/13 Long Weapons Kata (Bo Staff) and girls 12/13 Intermediate Kata.
Six of the best female Bo Staff Kata’s performed in the traditional Kobudo Kata and there were some spectacular performances by these girls.
Campsall did a great Kata and fought to a fifth place finish. In Kata, Meagan had a field of 16 other girls to duel through.
In the current WKF rules, Kata is done in a duel with two facing off to perform a Kata and the judges raise a flag to decide the winner. To win the gold you need to do at least five or six duels, alternating the Kata between duels performed ,with that many competitors in Repechage system.
Winning her first duel, Campsall faced off with the zone two qualifier’s gold medalist Casni Govender of Penticton. Campsall was defeated.
She then dueled for three more matches, acheived victory in all and won her first BC Provincial bronze medal.
While in Men’s Masters Black Belt Kata, Sheldo dueled Sensei Jason Farquharson from the Northern Rockies Dojo and he admitted it was a privilege to witness Sensei Jason’s performance of a traditional Okinawan Kata. In the end, Sheldo was defeated but accumulated one flag in the duel.
His next match was against Mark Bretell from Chilliwack, BC and Sheldo ended up with three flags and was awarded the silver medal.
Sheldo said, “Flags are important because if I could have won two more flags I could have achieved gold, which tells me I need to train harder.”
In Long Weapons Kata the Rossland instructor faced off with what he describes as an amazing newcomer from Victoria BC, Sarah Doctor who went first in their duel and did what Sheldo thought was an incredible performance of her Kata.
“However, after my Kata the judges scored me all three flags, winning the gold. That’s a first for me, I’ve never achieved that before. Training hard and competing in competitions is I think the most responsible expression of Karate and it was so much fun competing in such an amazing place as the Olympic Oval. I can’t wait to try again next year,” Sheldo concluded.