Toronto Open Highlights
Being the last event before nationals, the Toronto Open is a vital event to test our team’s mettle, assess our training regimen, and analyse our strategies. We also use the event to introduce new prospects for our competitive team. Our team of 19 strong for this event consisted of Alex Robinson, Nico Aniceto, Logan Lai, Christian Aniceto, Zachary Chin, Noah Sansait, Andre Aniceto, Cadence Truong, Meredith Huang, Andrea Chan, Nathan DeJesus, Theodore Kwok, Evan Kwok, Ai Barrett, Charisma Toupin, Emilio Joaquin, Joanne Tran, Cassidy Truong, and Dreyson Uy.
Andrea Chan, our newest team member from Hong Kong, at just 8 years old dominated her division with a win in all 3 bouts. However, the last bout was a challenge as her legs were showing some fatigue. We will prepare her for the upcoming new season and for the new AKC circuit in 2025. Her hard work earned her a Gold in her first event in Canada. No stranger to competition, Andrea is also a winner back in Hong Kong.
Emilio Joaquin, began competing very late in the season. Since his first event, he was bitten by the competition bug. Although late in the season, he recognized his weaknesses to work on them to earn his first Gold ever. With these valuable lessons, over the summer, he will work on some of his new kata for the next season. Congratulations on his perseverance and dedication.
Charisma Toupin is a recent addition to our team. As a provincial team member, she has joined Club Seiryu in preparation for Nationals. She is in the same division as our division champion Ai Barrett. On this event Charisma took Gold and Ai maintained the silver position giving us a one two punch as the division champions. It won’t be easy to repeat at nationals but we are training real hard for it.
It is bittersweet that Noah has decided not to go ahead with nationals this year. However, his focus in the Open circuit garnered him a Pan American title. Both Noah and Zac completed the Senior division with a result of bronze. Current WKF champion Matthew Gruitia took the Gold.
After suffering a loss to Eva Carina Arias Nunez in Quebec at the Montreal Open, Meredith and Joanne were in top form to compete against her in both the Junior and Senior divisions. Joining them this time was our secret weapon, Cassidy. In Juniors, Eva remained dominant with a silver going to Meredith. In Seniors however, Cassidy was the dominant athlete to earn Gold and Joanne reaping Bronze.
Brothers Evan and Teddy moved up to new divisions in this event with Evan earning a Silver and Teddy…Bronze. Medal earners Alex, Nico, Logan, and Dreyson were also on top of their game. The big surprise was Andre who has only competed this year earning a bronze in the challenging Junior division and Cadence who won her match with Tomari Passai after only practicing the kata once.
We still have lots of work to do to prepare for Nationals but the results of the Toronto Open has given us enough data to work with for further improvements. Our team continues to cross our fingers and sweat loads in the dojo as we have our eyes on the World Championships the October. Congratulations team on a job well done.
