Following a successful summer, Cochrane’s karate combatants had their competition falling in autumn events as well.
Adam Wackershauser, chief instructor at Ippon Karate Dojo in Cochrane, said his competitors are now preparing for some serious events this winter.
“They’ve been doing very well,” Wackershauser said. “We have a pretty competitive team.”
In the club’s most recent event, the mid-October West Coast Open in Seattle, Wackershauser took gold in sparring and his wife, Hidemi Uchiage, took gold in the Kata (patterns) discipline. With Alex Remondini and Emily Lambert taking medals at the U.S. Open in May, his competitors are on target for provincials and nationals in early 2013.
“It just seems to be getting stronger and stronger as we go along,” Wackershauser said of the competitors who train at his gym.
“We have people who join us from Airdrie, Calgary and Springbank. Our program’s been so successful we have people driving quite a distance just to train with us every week.”
Calgary’s Remondini and Airdrie’s Lambert are two of Wackershauser’s commuters. Remondini took silver in sparring at the U.S. Open/North America Cup in Las Vegas. Lambert won bronze in sparring at the same event and was recently named an athlete of the year in Airdrie.
Wackershauser attribute’s his gym’s success to the athletes karate attracts.
“The program is working. We take what we can from successful athletes and try and develop them even better, and also we have people starting from scratch and working their way up as well.”
His top group has advanced to the provincial and national level, which begins with a large international invitational tournament in Steveston, B.C., in late January.
Wackershauser expects more than 600 athletes to attend.
“The provincial team coaches are attending this year, so they’re going to be assessing skill at that tournament,” he said. “The people who are trying out for the provincial team, it will be in their best interests to put forward their best competition that weekend.”
From there it’s off to provincials in Calgary in February and nationals in Quebec in March.
