Two members of the Beaver Valley-Rossland Chito Ryu Karate Dojo travelled to Richmond to compete at the Olympic Oval in the Karate BC Provincial Championships.
Sensei Scott Hutcheson and his young student Fruitvale's Meagan Campsall, the only two practitioners who qualified from the Kootenay Boundry area this year, had incredible performances and brought home gold, silver, and bronze medals.
The competition began with a Demonstration of Okinawan Traditional Drumming and Dance amidst the cacophony of a six-ring-event live broadcast online through Viasport and hundreds of spectators.
Campsall, competing in her first provincial tournament, entered the age 10-13 Long Weapons Kata (Bo Staff) and girls 12-13 Intermediate Kata. There were some spectacular Bo Staff kata's performed in the traditional Kobudo kata by these girls. Meagan did a great kata and fought to a fifth place finish.
In Kata, Campsall faced a field of 16 other girls and in the current WKF rules kata is done in a duel format with two facing off to perform a Kata and judges raise a flag to decide the winner.
To win the Gold you need to do at least five or six duels, alternating the Kata between duels performed with that many competitors in the Repechage system. After winning her first duel, Campsall faced off with the Zone 2 qualifier Gold Medalist Casni Govender of Penticton and was defeated. She then dueled three more matches all with victories and won her first BC Provincial bronze medal.
In Men's Masters Black Belt Kata, Chito Ryu Sensei Scott Hutcheson dueled Sensei Jason Farquharson from the Northern Rockies Dojo.
“It was a privilege to witness Sensei Jason's performance of a traditional Okinawan Kata and I was defeated but accumulated 1 flag in the Duel,” said Hutcheson in an email.
Hutcheson then went toe-to-toe with Mark Bretell From Chilliwack and won three flags to capture the silver medal.
“Flags are important because if I could have won two more flags I could have achieved gold, which tells me I need to train harder.”
In Long Weapons Kata the Chito Ryu Sensei faced off with an amazing newcomer from Victoria, a young Sarah Doctor who went first in our duel and had an incredible performance. However, Hutcheson was equal to the task and delivered an exeptional kata, taking all three flags and winning gold for the second year in a row.
“That's a first for me,” said Hutcheson. “I've never achieved that before. Training hard and competing in competitions is I think the most responsible expression of Karate and it was so much fun competing in such an amazing place as the Olympic Oval. I can't wait to try again next year.”