October 5, 2009

PAIR PREPARE

With only three weeks away before making the trip to Dublin Ireland Tressa Y and Samantha M continue to
take on extra training to prepare them for the 2009 WKC world karate championships.  The pair spent the
weekend training and competing in London.  

On Saturday October 3rd the two karate students from RMA Karate in Barrie competed at the Ontario Grand
Nationals where they were faced with tough competition from across Canada and the United States.   Eleven-year-old
purple belt Samantha M competed in divisions with thirty other competitors.  Samantha M gave a strong
performance placing as a finalist in the kata, musical forms, weapons and sparring divisions.  

Fourteen-year-old black belt Tressa Y continues to fine-tune her forms and the competition gave her the
opportunity to test them out before the big trip across the pond.  Tressa Y placed first in weapons, first in traditional
forms, first in musical open forms, second in Chinese forms and third in traditional weapons.  

The pair had an early start on the Sunday morning (Oct 4th) when they trained with WKC Canadian national
team coach Michael Bernardo.  The dedicated team training gave the pair the opportunity to work one-on-one with
the head coach.  

"I was nervous training with him (Bernardo) at first but he is so nice and it was a really good workout" Samantha stated.

The pair leave for the world championships on October 28th and continue to work towards their fundraising goals to
help alleviate the expenses for the athletes. 

For more information on the pair or to help sponsor them please call RMA Karate at (705) 716-8014.