Bronze for Chad Kirkhus and Kimberly Gibbens
Nov 25, 2009 - 11:49 AM
UXBRIDGE -- Even a competition as far away as San Salvador couldn't keep a couple of members of the Uxbridge Taekwondo Academy off the medal podium.
At the 1st Pan Am Junior Poomsae Taekwondo Championships, Canada finished third in the female categories and third overall for the Poomsae Patterns. Chad Kirkhus and Kimberly Gibbens, from UTA, earned bronze in the individual male and team female categories respectively to make two out of the three medal standings Canada earned. Both athletes competed in both Poomsae and Sparring.
Both athletes put in more than 20 hours of extra training in under a month to prepare for this level of competition and it paid off. Teammate Khalil Mouna and Jason Mouna accompanied them as personal coaches to ensure they had their best chance.
Mexico and Peru, which took first and second place, have dedicated Poomsae Teams training year round for Poomsae competitions only. In Canada, the focus is still primarily on sparring, so 80 per cent of the training time is for sparring and only 20 per cent on Poomsae.
Kirkhus and Gibbens will compete on Dec. 12 at the provincial team trials and then in January at the junior nationals in Halifax, Nova Scotia where they will participate in both the Poomsae and Sparring. After that they will also compete at the Ontario Winter Games in sparring, among the six students from UTA to make the selection.
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