Fighters from Cochrane’s Ippon Karate Dojo are getting ready to take on the best martial artists in the country at the Karate Canada 2024 National Championships set to take place next month.
The tournament is scheduled from July 4 to 7 in Laval, Quebec. Ippon Coach, Adam Wackerhauser, said that their club will be sending 13 athletes who qualified for the provincial team, and will be competing in the tournament.
“There’s two disciplines underneath the World Karate Federation (WKF) that hosts all these tournaments that go from local tournaments all the way to the World Championships,” Wackershauser explained. “The two disciplines under them are the traditional disciplines of Kata and Kumite.”
He added that the age range of martial artists range from 12 to 30 years old.
Looking back, Wackershauser said Ippon had quite a bit of success competing at the national level.
“Last year, we’ve had some people win the nationals, some bronze medallists, and then we had seven top-five finishes as well, which is just right off the podium,” he said.
Although it’s a very tough competition, he says it never gets old to see his students compete at high-level competitions.
“You never quite know what to expect,” Wackershauser said. “There’s always something that happens that kind of takes you by surprise, but I’m very excited for them. I’m very happy with how much they progressed in the last year and the changes they made.
“Some of them I’ve been working with for 10 years, so just seeing that change has been awesome.”
Two members from Ippon heading to compete, Max and Evan Squires, are also looking forward to the competition. The brothers are both aiming for the top spot, and outline that they are going to do their best to make it happen.
“The goal is to get first or second, and then move on to the Pan Am [Championship] which is in Brazil this year,” Evan said.
Max noted that Evan has competed at two national competitions, winning three silver medals. Evan also went to Mexico City in 2022 to compete in the Pan American Championship.
“This year, we are going for two Golds,” Max said. “If we get Gold, or when, we will get to go to Worlds in Italy, and the Pan American Championships.”
Overall, the brothers would like to thank everyone who is helping them achieve their goals as martial artists.
“We would like to thank our coach Sensei Adam, and our Kata coach, Sensei Hidemi,” Max said. “And our parents, for paying for our training and supporting us. Without them, we definitely wouldn’t be where we are.”
