Ashtin Callaghan is a competitive person.
She can't help it. It's how she was raised.
"It's deeply ingrained," said the 27-year-old member of the Nechako Karate Club. "It's from my mom and my dad, for sure. Everything's a competition in my family - everything. Who can pee the fastest. Who can eat their Kraft Dinner the fastest is a legit competition we had."
Callaghan is hoping her competitive nature pays off in a big way this weekend. She's in Quebec City for the fourth national championships of her career and is preparing for individual kumite (or fighting) today and a team event on Sunday. As an individual, she'll do battle in the senior female under-61-kilogram category, which has eight other entrants. Those other competitors would be wise to give Callaghan - a black belt who fuels herself on emotion - their full attention.
"In my head I make up all these crazy stories about how evil the person is in front of me, and it just makes it easier for me," she said.
"I'm going to fight my heart out. It'll be good. Everyone's looking for a medal for sure. And there are some girls, it would just please me so much if I was looking down at them from the podium."
Even though she has a certain amount of animosity built up, Callaghan admits she hasn't met any of the other combatants. Instead, she has watched them on video and keeps an eye on their social media posts.
"I just want to punch a couple of them in the face," she said, her voice trailing off as if she knows it's not politically correct to say things like that. "That's how I fight though. I'm an emotional fighter."
Callaghan is also a fighter who's in the first year of a karate comeback after a significant amount of time away from the sport. In that respect, she realizes these nationals - her first in a decade - may be as much about getting her feet wet again as putting them on the medal podium.
"My original goal this year was just to make the B.C. team, so I've ticked off that box," said Callaghan, who was a karate practitioner in her childhood and teen years and then stopped competing while in a three-year X-ray technician program at BCIT in Vancouver. After she completed her education, she halted her karate training altogether for about four years.
"Now that I'm going to nationals it's more like information gathering," she added. "I haven't fought any of these girls before so I'm looking forward to some new faces."
Callaghan's return to karate was sparked when she checked out a local tournament and saw several of her former Nechako teammates still in action. One of those was Warren Grafton, who is also in Quebec City for the national gathering.
Grafton, 30, will be in action in two individual categories today (senior male under-84kg and senior male open) and will take part in team competition on Sunday. A second-degree black belt, he's making his third consecutive appearance at the Canadian championships. Last year, he placed fifth in individual kumite and the year before he was fourth. This year, he feels ready to do some real damage.
"Everything is supposed to be set up in kind of a three-year cycle," Grafton said. "Your first year, you show up and try not to get destroyed. Your second year, you show up and be competitive, and your third year is when you're supposed to have good results. So this is supposed to be my result year."
Grafton said he's been much more relaxed all season and he'll be trying to stay in that frame of mind when competition starts. Typically, he gets better as he advances along in a tournament and, for this one, he considers a medal a real possibility. A podium finish is on his radar, even though both his categories will be extremely tough.
"This is the first nationals since karate has been admitted into the Olympics," he explained. "So that's the mindset of everyone - people are looking to make it onto Team Canada to start training for the Olympics (in 2020 in Tokyo)."
For Grafton himself, a Team Canada spot is "definitely" a goal.
"To get the invite to come train with Team Canada you have to make podium and then you go and train and then they say whether or not you're on the team," he said.
Callaghan and Grafton are the only northern B.C. athletes who made the provincial team for these nationals.
