At the Western Canadian taekwon-do championships, Team B.C.'s medal hopes in junior men's sparring will depend largely on local athletes.
The team, which will compete in Warman, Sask., on Saturday, is formed by three members of Prince George's Family TaeKwon-Do and a pair of Vancouver residents. The locals are Dan Watt, Cole Abou-Tibbett and Kyle Graham. Together with Manuel Darson Andaya and Xiang Wei Wan, they will battle Alberta and Saskatchewan for top spot in the 14- to 17-year-old division.
"We expect good things," said Family TaeKwon-Do's Jordan Boudreau, who will be one of the Team B.C. coaches. "Two of the boys [Watt and Abou-Tibbett] were on the team at the 2011 nationals and did quite well so we're looking forward to these guys putting on a good performance."
All five boys hold black belts in taekwon-do, a Korean martial art in which students use punches and kicks as a means of self-defence.
The 17-year-old Watt, who got his black belt at age 13 and now holds second-degree black, will be making his third appearance at the western championships and has high hopes for Saturday.
"We have a really good team," said Watt, who stands six-foot-one and weighs 170 pounds. "They're all really talented kids. I've been training with most of them as long as I've been in taekwon-do and they're all really good."
Overall quickness, an excellent sense of timing and a long reach are some of Watt's assets when he's on the mat. Abou-Tibbett and Graham, meanwhile, are dangerous in their own ways.
"Cole is a bit smaller than me but he makes up for it with speed, and he's really aggressive," Watt said. "Kyle, he's strong and he never gives up."
At westerns, there will also be individual competition in sparring and patterns. In patterns, participants must perform a series of predetermined movements as precisely as possible.
As an individual, Watt will fight in the junior heavyweight class and will be targeting a gold medal. In patterns, he has more modest expectations of himself.
"Patterns aren't really my strongest point but I've been working really hard on them and I'm hoping I can at least place in a medal position," said the Grade 11 PGSS student.
Boudreau, a fifth-degree black belt, will also fight at the championships. The 37-year-old is registered in the men's division.
"I still love to compete," said Boudreau, whose career highlight was representing Canada at the world championships in 2004 in Korea. "As instructors, we kind of maybe relax a little bit too much and focus on teaching rather than training. Even though I'm getting up there in age I still like to force myself to train and get in there with these younger guys."
Other Family TaeKwon-Do members who will attend westerns are Dominic Boudreau (Jordan's 11-year-old son, who will be in his first tournament as a black belt) and the husband and wife duo of Jeff Gruending and Janet Gruending. Both were recently promoted to new belts, Jeff to blue and Janet to green.
Warman is located 20 kilometres north of Saskatoon.
Family TaeKwon-Do will host the provincial championships May 31 at Duchess Park secondary school. The tournament is expected to attract more than 250 competitors.
