Fort Nelson Firefighters Breast Cancer Awareness
In support of women everywhere and the Fort Nelson Firefighters Breast Cancer awareness fund raiser, we proudly wear pink.
Instead of wearing their standard Martial Arts uniform the boys chose to sport the pink shirts. Kristjan Trenter, Dustan Bowes and Riley Boomer headed down to Burnaby to compete in the Western Canadian Karate Championship on October 13th and 14th.
Also taking place in the same competition was the Brazilian Open Amateur Grappling competition. All this was located at the Sports Arena at B.C.I.T.
Competing were about 600 competitors from all around the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. Fort Nelson was happy to send three of our ranks to try their luck. Of course with the traditional part of the tournament being Karate, and us having a mostly Tae Kwon Do background, we didn’t expect much. This was more of a testing ground for the boys who have only recently started weapons training, to see how they stacked up against everyone else.
First up was Weapon Katas. All three boys were competing in the 11-to-17 green to brown belt division. Kristjan and Riley performed well, both receiving very good marks from all the judges. One, however, scored them surprisingly low. I was very pleased as they both did the pattern Happo Aki Jobe which has about 74 moves in it. This is a very difficult pattern and I was very pleased with their presentation. Dustan also competed, and performed his Bo pattern. He pulled off a perfect pattern and received very good marks. In the end Dustan won the silver, Kristjan placed fourth and Riley placed fifth. That was the first and only time the boys competed together and a pretty good start for the day.
Next up was Hard Form Katas. Dustan went first in the 11-to-14, blue to brown belt division. Again Dustan Bowes did well, but just got edged out for the silver by a brown belt, and took bronze. Riley went next in the 11-to-14, white to green belt division. Although a smaller division, Mr Boomer performed his pattern exceptionally well. In the end he cruised along to a well deserved gold. Last was Kristjan in the 15-to-17, blue to brown belt division. He also had a a smaller division. Kristjan pulled off the best pattern that I have ever seen him perform. I was very proud and he too won gold. Dustan received a bonus silver competing in another pattern division to fill out the ranks. That made it five for seven in the Katas competition portion of the tournament.
Kristjan was then invited to compete for the Grand Champion in Katas. He was also given to choice of competing with the adults or the children. He chose the adults, feeling the it would mean so much more competing against grown-ups. He did very well but came up short. Still quite the thing just to be there.
After a long wait, the boys finally got to fight. Now over the many years that Fort Nelson has competed, we have always done well in fighting. It must be something in the water up here because we northerners do excel in combat.
Riley Boomer was first and had something to prove. Riley has worked especially hard over the last six months and has improved steadily. He showed it in the ring. Although he lost his opening match to the boy that eventually won the gold, he took the back door and finished strong. Riley went on to win the bronze medal with guts and determination.
Dustan Bowes also had a few tough matches. However he finished strong and also won another bronze for his troubles. To make that even more special, Dustan’s grandfather, a Karate instructor and Master from the Island, was on hand to watch him.
Kristjan followed suit and took on his competition with a silly grin. He tends to do this whenever he spars, must be a Trenter thing cause I’ve noticed his dad does the same thing. In the gold medal match Kristjan jumped out to a quick three to nothing lead and never looked back. Kristjan easily went on to win his division and won gold.
That left nine for eleven and on full cruise control.
Now came the event young Kristjan had waited for, grappling. Kristjan has been studying grappling off and on for the last two years. Because of studying when we had a place and the sporadic training he was still considered a beginner. Of course in his favour he has been fighting much larger opponents and adults for the most part. This gave him a little bit of an advantage I think. When he got into the gold medal match we were a little worried after watching what his opponent was capable of. Kristjan said not to worry, I am stronger, faster and sneakier than them. He was right. He bounded across that mat and locked onto his arm and threw a perfect inside hip throw. This lunged him 10 feet across the mat. Kristjan quickly took his back. With a quick pressure point to expose his neck, Kristjan finished with a rear naked choke, all in under 29 seconds. In fact, it was so fast none of us even got a picture of the fight.
So lets do the Math.
Three competitors. Countless hours of training. 20 hours and 1,600 km of travel. 12 events. 10 medals – four gold, two silver and four bronze. Altogether, this equals an impressive three young men from Fort Nelson.
Ron Glaves
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