Yorkton Martial Arts Training Center sent a pair of athletes to the WOMAA Open World Martial Arts Championships last month, seeing both athletes achieve new heights in their young martial arts careers. In August Gracynn Gurniak-Hudy and Colton LaBelle competed in Dublin, Ireland with Team Canada on the world stage, a once in a lifetime even that was achieved through hard work and dedication saw the two young pupils of the YMATC overseas to represent their country.
Tournament days were long, starting at 9:00 a.m. and lasting until 10:00 p.m. on each of the three days filled with competition and cheering on the rest of their team.
The two also gave their Team Canada members something to cheer about, securing a handful of medals for Canada and the YMATC.
Gracynn competed in five events earning three silver medals in her point sparring, musical forms and continuous sparring events, failing to win gold yet leaving Ireland with a more than satisfactory haul of three medals at the international competition.
Colton competed in two events and took silver in continuous sparring and won the gold in his point sparring division to take home two medals at the tournament. Mike Forster commented that the pair of students have "Both have overcome their own adversities and have proven that hard work and dedication pay off."
Colton and Gracynn would like to thank the numerous sponsors in the bottle drives, steak night, raffle draw, garage sales, and generous donations that helped get them to Ireland as well as their friends, family and coaches for the tremendous support, encouragement and extra training on the path to success.
The experience of the world tournament and touring Ireland afterward will be one that they won't soon forget and meeting new martial arts friends from Canada and around the world is driving them to continue their journey towards black belt, more local tournaments and hopefully another world championship trip in the future according to YMATC's instructor Mike Forster.
After impressing on the world stage for their country at an international martial arts event the future is high for two of Yorkton's young martial arts pupils, showing that there is opportunity for the martial arts community to grow in the city, opportunity that stretches beyond Canada's borders.
