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Official Web Site
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2009 Canadian Junior Taekwondo
Championships
Quebec City
Rae Ashcroft captured Gold
~ Kira Shaab captured Bronze
The Yorkton athletes that went to the Nationals.
L to R
Master Mitchell, Derek Barr, Francis Bazin,
Kira Schaab, Graeme Mitchell, Rae Ashcroft
Local Results:
On May 16 to 18 the 2009 Junior National Taekwondo Championships were held in Quebec City, Quebec. KEES Yorkton had four athletes participating in this event. Derek Barr ("B" Division Bantam weight), Francis Bazin ("A"
Division Middle weight), Kira Schaab ("A" Division Light weight), and Rae Ashcroft ("A" Division Light Middle).
The competition was well attended over the three days of competition. There was about a total of 1250 athletes. There were over 600 black belts in total. This event is used to select the "A" Division National
Team. The "A" Division age group is 15 to 17. Derek Barr was the first competitor from Yorkton to take the floor on Sunday during the "B" division event (ages 13&14). He drew a very good competitor that went on to eventually get the gold medal. His first round was not up to his ability and found him down 10 to 2. His coach, Graeme Mitchell, had him apply some adjustments in Round two.
This was working for him as the score closed to 10 to 6. He lost his focus in the last round and the Quebec player took advantage. Derek lost his first match in this single elimination event.
On Monday May 18th, the "A" division competitors (15yo-17yo) took the floor with the winner of each weight class being named to the Junior Canadian Taekwondo Team that would travel to El Salvador for the Pan-Am Junior Championships in November 19-22, 2009.
Francis Bazin performed very well through the first two rounds against an experienced Ontario competitor. Going into round 3 there was only
one point spread. Francis was anxious and tried to open up the game.
Unfortunately it was his opponent that won those elevated exchanges and Francis lost his first match.
Kira Schaab had an excellent first match against Quebec's Josianne Chicoine.
Kira's dominating performance ended in a 13 to 0 victory. Kira's 2nd match was a bigger challenge. She stuck to her game plan and ground out a 13 to 10 win. This put here into the medal rounds. In
her next match Kira met a strong competitor Charlotte Brown, who beat Kira at the Commonwealth Championships by a score of 6 to 4. Kira gave a dominating performance and executed her game plan. The start
of round three found the score at 6 to 2 for Kira. About 80 seconds into the round Kira strained an area in her hip that once had a muscle tear. The pain of the injury negatively affected her ability to move
and avoid attacks. Round 3 ended in a tie sending the game to sudden death overtime. At about the one minute mark Kira had to withdraw because of the injury and settled for a bronze medal. That competitor advanced to the gold medal and was voted the game female MVP.
Kira's confidence has been raised to a new level. Total healing of her injury will be the priority and fantastic results will be in her near future.
Rae Ashcroft had another great year at this event. Her first match was against a BC competitor from the Olympic coaches club. This match was a bit difficult but Rae never lost the lead for a 10 to 7 win.
The second match was against a strong performer from Ontario, Fegan Decordova.
Fegan had been expected by some to take the gold medal. This match ended with a17 to 14 score sending Rae to the gold medal match.
The gold medal match was against Kayla Leblanc of New Brunswick. Rae was a taller competitor with a much longer reach. The New Brunswick coach took the strategy of survival over winning. They very
effectively negated Rae's reach advantage until the end of round 2. Round two ended with Rae ahead by a score of 1 - 0. Rae had a relentless attack through the whole game.
She was out kicking her opponent at about 10 to 1 ratio. Those attacks wore Kayla down. Round three ended with the score at 3 to 0.
Rae Ashcroft of KEES Yorkton is the 2009 Junior National champion gold medallist
and National Team member. She will travel with the team to El Salvador in November.
What a fantastic performance and result.
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