Coast to Coast with the WKC!

--Andrew Cabilan

The City of London – Ontario’s Forest City – served as the battlefield for the WKC (World Kickboxing and Karate Council) Southern Ontario qualifier. The event took place on April 4 and was held at the London Convention Centre. Hosted by WKC’s Director, Mike Bernardo, the qualifier brought in the province’s best talent as hundreds of competitors competed to earn a seed at the Canadian Nationals in May. Bernardo’s meticulous organization was evident as the event began promptly at 10 a.m. as scheduled. Each ring was well spaced out to ensure that the competitors had plenty of room to practice and for the spectators to get a good view of all the action taking place. In collaboration with Guy Ouellette’s SKRA (Sport Karate Referees Association), the judging panel in each ring was impeccable and the utmost professionalism was displayed by the individuals who took on the responsibilities. The Junior Boys divisions were packed with talent-laden young gentlemen. Making his presence known in the Traditional and Weapons divisions was Ottawa’s Imran Jaffar who captured four Gold Medals at this event, easily earning him a spot at the Nationals. On the contemporary side of things, Ryan Young of United Martial Arts kicked and flipped his way to Gold medal victories in Free Style, Extreme and Korean Forms plus another Gold medal in Fighting. On the Young Ladies’ side of things, Brianna Ouellette trampled over her competition by claiming Gold medal wins in each of her Forms divisions, including her debut performance in Soft Style. With the abundance of youthful talent present in this area, the future of this sport is definitely moving in the positive direction.

The Adult competition kicked off with Women’s Forms. Notable victories include Tammy Bernardo claiming victories in both Hard Style and 35+ Traditional Forms. Taking a break from her studies and making the long voyage from Montreal was NTKS’ Ana-Maria Iancu. Iancu garnered Gold medal victories in the Creative and Musical Weapons divisions and Freestyle Forms. On the Mens’ side, rookie adult Mark Santoro made his mark by winning the Men’s Traditional Weapons division. Bo swinging James Heaton of Ottawa was victorious in both Creative and Musical Weapons, narrowly edging Santoro in both events. Veteran competitor Andrew Cabilan was pushed to the limit in Men’s Hard Style Forms when a tie-breaker ensued between Cabilan and Sandeep Singh. Both competitors had to perform different forms for the tie-breaker and Cabilan pulled through to claim top honours. Cabilan also won Freestyle and Korean Forms. In the 35+ bracket, Jeff Muir was victorious in his respective Forms and Weapons divisions.

With the Canadian Sport Martial Arts community revolving around Southern Ontario and Quebec, rarely do we hear about our warrior neighbours to the West. What makes competing in Western Canada so unique is the phenomenon that an Eastern Canada competitor experiences. As you travel from East to West, you can’t help but notice the shift from bo wielding Hard style traditionalists to the more contemporary sword swinging Soft stylists. On the weekend of April 18, Cody Diesbourg hosted the WKC Alberta Provincials inside the Radisson Hotel. Although Diesbourg currently resides in Edmonton, he is an Ontario native who has trained under Mike Bernardo and John Marshall. It comes to no surprise that all of his Premier Martial Arts students were displaying the same fluidity and dexterity of the bo staff as their mentors. However, it was the dynamic performances of the Soft style competitors which highlighted the event. What the Ontario qualifiers lacked in the Soft style category, Alberta definitely more than made up for it. The most prolific and visible school was the Jing Ying School of Wushu. Their forms exhibited both the athletic and aesthetic values of the beautiful art. The ever graceful Alannah Chan earned herself a Gold medal victory with a fierce Southern Wushu form which would make Jet Li take a second look! Her male counterpart, Winston Pon performed a similar routine but fell short of a victory behind an intense Kyle Craig of My Jong Law Horn. In 35+ Forms, Corey McDonals claimed top honours. Ontario competitor Andrew Cabilan made the long trek to this event and captured Gold medal victories in Weapons, Musical Forms and Hard Style Forms. Although Diesbourg is still relatively young, his professionalism and attention to detail should be highly commended. Each set of divisions were pre-assigned to one of the six well-spaced rings inside the hotel convention centre. In addition, there was more than ample space to warm up prior to competing. With the WKC motto “the competitor comes first”, Diesbourg made it hassle-free for the competitors in Musical Forms by providing each ring with its own sound system and person to play the music – something rarely seen even at National events! The tournament ran without a hitch and many of the festivities came to an early 3 p.m. end. This gave out-of-towners the opportunity to visit the many sites of Edmonton, especially the World’s Largest Shopping Centre – The West Edmonton Mall.

Along with the Soft style schools of Jing Ying Wushu and My Jong Law Horn, there was also tremendous support from Arashi Do Karate and Team Elements. The diverse array of competitors and martial arts styles present at this event will definitely gave all the competitors and spectators alike a taste of the wide spectrum of talent that this country has to offer the rest of the world.