Kees Yorkton took a team of five young competitors to the 30th annual Grandmaster KH Min's tournament in Edmonton on Oct. 19. The event had over 300 competitors. Participating was Tyler Buenneke, Zane Chopik, Kallie Buenneke, Tyana Daigneault and Elexa Daigneault. There were five rings of action that included Poomsae, Sparring and Board Breaking.
Elexa first match ended in a 3-0 score. Her opponent was game but was not as strong. Her second match was a very lopsided score of 18-1. She got the gold in sparring and silver in the pattern competition.
Tyana had a strong first match dominating the opponent to a score of 11-2. The gold medal match found her against a very equal opponent. At the end of the second round Tyana came out victorious. She also got a bronze in patterns.
Kallie entered all three events and shone with a final collection of three gelds. One for her pattern competition, one for the flying side kick break and a final gold in sparring. She had to work hard in the sparring winning all three of her matches to stand on the podium gold once again.
Zane Chopik started out with a bronze in patterns in a large field of advanced belts. He entered the black belt sparring for 10-year-old males and gave a super performance in his first match with a score of 17-0. His gold medal match was against a very aggressive slightly larger opponent. The first round found him down by 3-0. He rallied strong in the last round ending with a respectable 5-3 loss for the silver medal.
Tyler came in fourth in the patterns finishing out of the medals for that event. In the flying side kick breaking he finished strongly to capture the gold medal. There were six strong players in his sparring division for black belt 11-12 year olds. He has very strong footwork which helped him to outmanoeuvre all of his opponents, especially in the gold medal match he needed everything he had to best his opponent for a 9-7 final score and the gold medal.
The final count for Kees Yorkton was eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals. This is very respectable results for this small and young team. Susanne Mitchell was a referee at this event and the coach was Master Wayne Mitchell.
