This past Saturday was a big weekend for Martial Arts, all over the World! In Ireland the largest and most competitive fighting tournament in the World ,the Irish Open took place. In Ohio, USA the Arnold Classics was held. Quebec city was host to our 3rd event of the WKA 2010 Circuit season, “The Quebec Capital Open”.

For those in attendance the tournament ran in a very unique location, taking place in the middle area, of a busy weekend shopping mall. With roller-coasters and many additional spectators watching while they shopped, the WKA event ran from 10-4pm.

To start the day off the WKA Canada organization continued growing its official referees association by adding another 37 level 1 referees to our ever expanding lineup of qualified WKA Officials. The tournament started on time and was able to push through the divisions and have everything complete by 4pm to get everyone home at a reasonable hour.

Now onto the action for the day:

There were many standout performances on Saturday in the various WKA Forms/Weapons divisions. Some of the larger division winners for the day were the following champions; Élizabeth Blouin Rondeau, Marie-Anne Ouellet, Lily Desbiens, Jean-François Gauthier, Élise Ouellet, Pierre Scanzano, Charles Olivier Dubé, and Caroline Simard.

The sparring divisions were a little smaller than normal, mostly due to the other events around the World, but the following winners took home 1st place in their respective larger divisions; Laura-Lee Lemay, Danika Émond, Anthony Gadoury, Jessy Pronovost, Marie-Julie Coté, Lace Godin, Mathieu Perreault, Mike Breton, Éric Langlois, and Sylvain Beaudry.

In the underbelt divisions Maximillion Kelland swept his divisions again and is positioning himself as the one to beat in the under 13 advanced belt division. The 100% Martial Arts Team coached by WKA Promoters Bill and Brigitte Gatchell made their 2010 debut in the Light Contact Division. They dominated most divisions and are looking forward to more support in these growing divisions as they work towards their WKA Event April 11th in Ottawa!

Longtime fighting legends from Quebec City Mr. David Bisonette and Mr. Bernard Paquette made their WKA Canada Circuit debuts in the fighting divisions and both moved onto the run-offs for Grand Champ in their first tournament back in a while.

The story of the day had to be the Coaches from Team YKO Mr. Eric Despatie coming back from a severe hamstring tear in Spain, and his partner Katherine Rivard returning to competition after a 10 year absence. After Ms. Rivard great finish in her forms division, Mr. Despatie was very motivated and proceeded to fight amazingly well coming back from injury to win the Overall Grand Champion in the Men’s Fighting!

In the junior divisions Vicky Provias and Chanel Emond once again dominated their divisions and are looking for any Canadian girls to challenge them in their various Forms/Weapons divisions. They look forward to challengers in Montreal and Quebec this month, and Ottawa in April!

The Overall Forms Grand Champ went to Fabio Alelta from France. He currently is training with Studio Unis in Quebec city and was able to take a narrow Grands victory over World Champion Cedric Ferland. Cedric went onto winning the Weapons Grands to cap off a solid tournament for Cedric and Studios Unis as hosts to the WKA Event!

This is the WKA Canada Circuit busiest month of the year with 2 more tournaments this month that will finish off a busy, and successful month of competitions for the circuit.