Trio medals at national karate competition

A trio of local karate experts have qualified to represent Canada at an international competition in Ireland.

Sheridan Mergel, Dat Le and Kade Kleinknecht of Blue Dragon Martial Arts all medalled this past weekend a the World Karate Championships’ nationals in Ottawa and Gatineau this past weekend, displaying a dizzying array of skills.

Mergel, 21, also qualified for worlds when she was 13 and living in Saskatchewan but has a different appreciation for her medals this time around.

“We teach the little kids, so coming back and them knowing we qualified... for us it’s a great achievement,” she said. “We just focus more, practice more.”

Mergel won silver in Chinese soft-style kata (forms) and point sparring. Le, 19, won his Chinese kata and was second in sparring and freestyle kata. Kleinknecht, 17, had a third-place kata finish.

At first Le wasn’t sure what he’d got himself into for nationals. He’d put in the work but had no idea what to expect.

“When you first walked in there was a bunch of people. Six rings, music’s blaring, people are screaming, there’s people doing backflips,” he said.

“I was really confident with what I had, but when I saw what they brought it was so different compared to what we face in Medicine Hat.”

Turns out he had every reason to be confident.

Kleinknecht noted he and his teammates all had to qualify just to get to nationals. He won his spot at an event in Edmonton, while Le and Mergel won theirs in Weyburn.

“It was crazy hard,” he said. “Just the level of competition, they do a little bit different style of karate so we had to adjust. It was an amazing learning experience.”

While they’ve all qualified for the WKC world championships Oct. 27-Nov. 2 in Dublin, the next question is whether they’ll actually go.

Le wasted no time answering that question.

“I already booked my flights,” he said. “I want to go there and do my best.”

Mergel and Kleinknecht haven’t figured out if the trip will fit into their schedules, but sensei Mike Tolhurst plans to get them all ready as if they’re going — just in case.

“They did well,” said Tolhurst, a fifth-degree black belt who went to worlds in 2010. “Now the real training starts to step up their game to go fight internationally. You need to have a lot of dedication for it.”