Over the weekend, Canadian National Team Roster members were in Paris, France, for the Paris Open K-1 Championships, which were held from January 27th-29th. The Canadian delegation included 15 athletes, accompanied by three coaches and eight officials. A total of 1247 athletes from 79 countries around the world competed in this event. This weekend event saw a number of spirited performances on the part of Canadian athletes, with three top-10 finishes, including two bronze medals.

In women’s kumite, Kathryn Campbell, of New Brunswick, earned a bronze medal during repechage, winning against Reka Molnar of Hungary in the -55kg division. In the -61kg division, Haya Jumaa won three matches in repechage, defeating Xiaoyan Yin of China (2015 Asian champion in -55kg kumite) to take the bronze medal. Also in the -61kg category, Kamille Desjardins, of Quebec, won two matches in repechage for a 9th-place finish.

Karate Canada’s President, Mr. Craig Vokey, commented that the Paris Open saw a “fantastic performance from Canadian athletes at the first Karate One event of 2017. With two podium and a top 10 finish and recent top 10 placings at the recent World Championships, Canadian athletes are setting their sights on Tokyo 2020. Of note several Canadian officials also were kept busy during the event which had almost 1300 competitors”. Executive Director Olivier Pineau added that “recent analysis of results at major international events, as part of our preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, has shown a very strong correlation between results at top European Karate-1 events and results at Senior World Championships, which are thus far the strongest karate events in the world. Our growing and continued success at these K-1 events is therefore very tangible and encouraging evidence of our athletes’ potential to reach the podium in Tokyo, 3 years from now.”