Referred to as Sask. WTF, Grand Master Kee S. Ha and Grand Master Sung Ju Kim founded this non profit corporation in 1981. The mandate was to provide the benefits of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) to the people of Saskatchewan.

   
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Press Release:

Saskatchewan Taekwondo athlete captures 
Pan-Am Bronze medal

It was a long tough road for the lone Saskatchewan athlete on the Canadian Junior National Taekwondo Team.  In 2006, 2007 and 2008 Rae Ashcroft, of KEES Taekwondo in Yorkton, settled for a silver medal in each of those Junior National Team Trials.  This silver medal 
placing, while a great accomplishment, left her off the national junior team. Rae dropped her participation on the High school Volleyball and Basketball team to focus on Taekwondo.  The strategy paid off in a dominating gold medal performance at the 2009 Junior National Team Trials in Quebec City. 

The Canadian team traveled to the 5th Junior Pan-Am Taekwondo Championships on November 16th to a very warm San Salvador, El Salvador.  The temperature was in the low 30's Celsius. The athletes had to quickly adapt to the conditions and still be expected to perform.  Rae looked very confident and relaxed in her pre-event training.  She had the fortune of having her personal coach, Graeme Mitchell, on hand to work with the Taekwondo Canada National coach, Jamie Kitchell-Dossantos.  This type of feedback is invaluable to allowing the National coach learn the strengths and weaknesses of the National athlete.

    
Training                                                                         Match

Even the little things can derail an athletes confidence and focus.  Another adaptation required is the different culture and feeling comfortable with those differences.  Rae settled in to her new environment and knew how to focus on her game plan.

The 5th Pan-Am Junior Taekwondo Championships was held November 20-22 in San Salvador, El Salvador. This was the largest Pan-Am Junior event yet.  There were 22 countries with over 200 participants. The athletes were all 14 to 17 year old black belts that were their national team members. The quality and ability of the athletes is very high.

Rae Ashcroft was scheduled to compete on day 1 of the event.  Graeme Mitchell assisted by physically warming her up and ensuring that her mental training game plan was on track for her pre-fight preparation.  Rae's first match was against a very feisty Chile competitor, Catalina Espinosa.  The first 30 seconds saw Chile ahead by 1 to 0.  Once Rae settled into her game she began to dominate the scoring.  The match ended with Rae winning by a score of 7 to 3.

Rae biggest challenge came against Olivia Salazar.  The Salazar family is famous in Mexico with many Olympic and World Championship gold medals.  The match was very exciting with lots of technical exchanges.  Both girls displayed great defenses that found the score at the end of regulation play tied at 0 to 0.  The two combatants did not let up on the pressure for the Overtime round.  Rae came extremely close with one exchange that had "oohs" from the spectators.  The OT round ended with no score and went to a referee decision.  The decision went the way of Mexico for a silver medal.  Canada's Rae Ashcroft settled for a bronze medal performance to boost the Canadian Teams overall results.

Canada team standings were 3rd for male team, 3rd for female team and 3rd overall for the whole event.  Saskatchewan has not had a member on the Canadian junior team since 2001 and this is the first athlete with an international medal performance.  This is an important 
accomplishment that proves to the up and coming potential Canadian Team members from Saskatchewan that they can stand with the best in the world.

At the last moment the Head of Team was changed and Saskatchewan's Wayne Mitchell was asked to serve in that crucial team position.

For further information contact Wayne Mitchell (306) 783-0650.