November 22-23, 2013 brought sport karate to Toronto, Ontario, Canada with the Toronto Tournament of Martial Arts Champions. The event was rated by NASKA and the event highlighted the wide variety of sport karate teams in Canada and the love of the sport. On Friday evening, the musical, extreme and creative forms were held along with team competition and a unique event – stick fighting.
In the forms and weapons divisions, Tressa Young cleaned up in her divisions as did Cedric Ferland. Youth competitor Attiphah A Moulton-Davis was tearing it up in the girls creative and extreme forms and weapons competition. In teams, Team Bernardo came out the champions from a large field of 14 teams.
With competitors boasting names like Lurch, the stick fighting competition was definitely exciting. The competition brought a number of international stick combatants to the arena. Frederick of Germany advanced into the finals on Saturday and then took the overall championships in a high energy match.
The bulk of the competition took place on Saturday at the Hershey Center and the place was PACKED. The divisions were huge for the underbelts and the competition was fierce. Competitors from Team United showed that training with top bo competitor Casey Nash pays off – they looked awesome.
The adult forms and weapons competition showed off the depth of talent in the country of Canada. Tressa Young came out the winner in adult grand championships after blasting through more forms and weapons eliminations during the day. Who did she defeat – the one and only Andrew Cabilan who showed up to dominate in men’s traditional competition.
Winning in fighting was not easy at this competition. With competitors ending rounds with bloody noses, it was clear that winning would require some real work. Elyse Gorrell faced off against challengers to take the women’s point sparring grand championship. For the men, some of the fights got a little crazy but was overall controlled. Doug Klaskin was able to battle through all to take the grand championship title.
The cold outside did not stop some heated competition in the Hershey Arena as the 2013 Toronto Tournament of Champions went off without any problems. The hospitality of the staff was fantastic, the event well-run and the competition strong.
