YORKTON – The 2024 Youth, Cadet, and Junior National Championships were held July 6 and 7 in Winnipeg.
The National Team selection event held at the RBC Convention Centre drew over 300 Taekwondo black belts in the 11 to 17 age group.
The Cadet and Junior Team selected at this event will represent Canada this week at the Pan Am Championships hosted in Queretaro, Mexico.
Saskatchewan had three athletes vying for a team spot. Two of those hopefuls came from Kees Yorkton and were coached by local Master Matthew Bodnaryk. Alexander Oryschak participated in the Male Junior Welter weight division and Justus Jaquet participated in the Male Cadet Heavy Weight Division.
The competition rules used at this event are the same “Best of Three Round” rules being used in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Master Susanne Mitchel, National Referee Committee member, was tasked with running one of the four rings and ensuring that the referees adhered to those rules.
Kees Yorkton also had three up and coming national referees assist in this prestigious event. Jack Geraldoy, Areil Alfelor and Joey Garcia added their expertise to the important mission of providing the fairest and consistent application of the rules to ensure the best athlete rises to the podium.
Alexander Oryschak’s first match was against a more experienced British Columbian opponent, whom twelve point gapped him to end the first round early. Alexander’s coach, Matthew Bodnaryk, gave him great strategy changes for the 2nd round. Oryschak applied the advice and squeezed out a win in round two by a couple of points. With some fine tuning of the strategy during the 2nd round break, the third-round strategy found Alexander ahead by five points. The game ended with Alexander victorious by a two to one round final total. He advanced to the medal semi-finals.
The medal round game saw him meet a very experienced Quebec fighter. Alexander lost this match to secure the bronze medal.
The Cadets had a double elimination format compared to the single elimination for the Juniors. Justus Jaquet had a great first cadet match against a Quebec opponent whom later fought his way to a bronze medal. Justus point gapped this player to win the game in two rounds.
His second match was against New Brunswick opponent that went on to settle for the silver medal. The first round was in Justus’s favour (15 to 3) . The second round went to the opponent (7 to 8). The third round saw Justus utilize a high scoring technique that successfully moved him ahead to win the final round and game with a score of 9 to 6. The balance of the field of competitors in the heavy weight division had a “B” side competition to decide whom would face Justus and challenge for the gold medal that included a National team spot.
The gold medal match for us was anti-climatic. At the conclusion of the first round using a play safe strategy, Justus had one round in his favour with a score of 3 to 0. The second round showed the stamina of the opponent running on low energy. Justus pressed the action and with a few well-timed kicks, found himself on top with a 9 to 4 score. With this game concluded Justus was declared a Canadian National Champion.
This gold medal performance placed Justus on the National team and now enroute to the Pan Am Cadet and Junior Championships scheduled for this coming weekend in Queretaro, Mexico. This is an exciting development in Justus’s dream of representing Canada many times in the future.
The Pan Am Taekwondo Championships are also being live streamed and his enthusiastic supporters will be cheering him on from our home bleachers.
The Canadian Taekwondo Olympians, Skylar Park and Josipa Kafadar, were also present at the event for autographs and photo ops for the many excited your competitors. As a very young competitor, Park competed at Kee's annual Prairie Wildfire Taekwondo Challenge.
