Two members of the Beaver Valley Rec’s Chito-Ryu Karate Dojo brought home hardware from the Zone 1 and 2 KarateBC Provincial qualifying tournament in Penticton last week.
Sensei Scott Hutcheson won gold and silver, while 11-year-old Macy Verigin was golden in weapons kata at the Mar. 16 regional event.
The pair joined close to 100 competitors from age 6 to 58 from around the Okanagan who competed for the top four spots in each division to qualify for the provincial championships in Richmond in June.
Verigin continued her mastery of the art, taking gold in weapons kata doing Bo Kata Ichi scoring 18.1. She just missed the podium in the intermediate kata event doing Niseishi sho, but after a judges consultation, Verigin would be awarded a wildcard spot on the team for her kata as well.
Hutcheson meanwhile won the men’s black-belt weapons kata doing Sakugawa no kun sho and scoring an 18.5. He also took silver in the men’s masters black belt kata doing Sanshiryu.
To accumulate points you must demonstrate the Kata correctly, with proper timing, power, focus and balance. A slight imperfection will cause demerits lowering your score. Five judges scores are averaged by dropping the lowest and highest scores providing your total.
Kumite, Kata, Team Kata, and Weapons Kata are all events at a KarateBC tournament , THE Amateur Sport Body responsible for governing authentic traditional Karate for the province. Hutcheson and Verigin will compete in the provincials in Richmond at the Olympic Oval, May 31-June 1.
Chito Ryu Karate trains at the Fruitvale Elementary School Mondays and Wednesdays 6 p.m. -7p.m. for kids 6-12, and from 7-8:30 p.m. for adults 13+ and Saturdays at the Fruitvale Hall 10-11:30am.
The spring semester starts Apr. 7. So call Kelly at B.V. Rec at 367-9319 for more info.