Local taekwon-do students slam competition

Sun Peaks’ Northern Taekwon-Do Academy saw great success at the recent Taekwon-Do B.C. “Retro” Cup.

The competition took place at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops on May 14. Ryan Oevermann, tournament host and chief instructor at Sun Peaks’ Northern Taekwon-Do Academy, said this tournament was originally planned for March 2020, but was cancelled due to the pandemic.

“We had $1,000s worth of metals sitting around with a time stamped date of 2020,” Oevermann said. “So we had a retro tournament, and we kind of modelled it after ‘Back to the Future.’ It became so popular, it became the B.C. Cup.”

The tournament drew a total of 232 students. Sun Peaks had 27 students compete, and received 27 medals at the competition.

Oevermann said the tournament featured a variety of ages, weights and ranks, from white belts to fifth degree black belts. There were over 400 matches, which included sparring, pattern, board breaking, special technique and power technique.

Since this was the first taekwon-do tournament held in three years, Oevermann said there was a lot of interest from far and wide.

“We had competitors from Alberta [and] Saskatchewan, all here for the B.C. Cup because they wanted to compete,” he said. “They were eager to get back at it.”

Not having a competition in many years also meant most Sun Peaks students had never even competed in-person before. Oevermann said this created a mix of excitement and nerves for the event.

Now as the taekwon-do season wraps up in June, he said students are looking forward to belt-testing. Oevermann will also be testing for his fifth-degree black belt.