Five Estevan members of the Vilcu Karate Club went to nationals recently and grabbed some gold medals in forms, sparring and weapons.
Sifu Carlos Peraza, who also trains with Oxbow Martial Arts, Darson, Pam and Darcy Gunnlaugson and Kathy Lafrentz each won medals at World Karate Commission Nationals in Ottawa in May.
“We came home with 16 medals,” said club member Pam Gunnlaugson. “We trained as a team and we did continuous sparring and point sparring and then there was also Kata, known as patterns.”
Peraza won gold in creative weapons form and Korean forms, silver in point sparring, freestyle forms and traditional forms and bronze in Japanese forms and traditional weapons. Darson Gunnlaugson won gold in continuous sparring and fourth in freestyle forms, Korean forms and Chinese kata. Kathy Lafrentz won silver in continuous sparring, point sparring and bronze in Chinese kata. Pam Gunnlaugson won silver in Korean forms, bronze in creative weapons forms, continuous sparring and point sparring and fourth in traditional weapons form.
Darcy Gunnlaugson won gold in continuous sparring, silver in creative forms and fourth place in point sparring and traditional kata.
Pam and Darcy Gunnlaugson together won gold in team kata.
“The diversity of the team brought home all the medals,” said Pam Gunnlaugson, a brown belt. “We trained in Weyburn and Estevan and it’s the support of the club and all the black belts that gets you ready for something like that. They’ve been working with us since Christmas. We didn’t qualify till March but they’ve been working with us.”
The Vilcu members also weren’t all black belts, which is a different level of competition that they’re used to.
“If you qualify at provincials, you can go compete against all of their black belts,” she said. “We had blue belts, brown belts, red and one black belt among the five of us. We had all different colours.”
There were up to 12 people in any one class at nationals for competition, Pam Gunnlaugson said.
“So it was intense. It was good,” she laughed.
Those who finished in the top four are on the 2018 WKC Canadian team and qualified for both the World competition in Ireland later this year and the Pan American games in Guatemala in Feb. 2019, where the members are already starting to plan to attend.
“I think it’s just going to be practicing all the different styles we do,” Pam Gunnlaugson said. “I do a musical weapons one, and I play music from (electronic group) A Tribe Called Red which is a little bit traditional because I’m Métis. It’s just really fun.”
The team travelled with Sensei Harold Vilcu and his granddaughter Jocelyn, who helped with coaching.
