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LeRoy to host Provincial Taekwondo tournament

LEROY — Taekwondo competitors from across the province will be travelling to LeRoy for this year’s SaskCup Championships. “Every year we have four tournaments.
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LEROY — Taekwondo competitors from across the province will be travelling to LeRoy for this year’s SaskCup Championships.

“Every year we have four tournaments. Provincial, SaskCup – which are basically the same, just we have two of them in a year – and then we have Westerns and Nationals,” said Jeff Turchyn, head instructor with the Watson Taekwondo Club.

It was originally planned to be held in Saskatoon, but problems arose with Saskatoon, which are also holding Westerns in May.

“They were supposed to have this tournament in September, but they were swamped with Westerns,” Turchyn said “I asked them if it would be okay if we put in a recommendation of having it in LeRoy... And that’s how we got it.”

The Watson Taekwondo Club is the host for the event. Turchyn said the reason the club volunteered to host was due to the competition being a valuable preparation for Nationals.

“It’s a good warmup tournament, I didn’t want to lose the tournament for the kids, and us being close to home because of less travel for us, for once, so it gives us a better chance to go to these events.”

LeRoy in particular was chosen for the size of the arena.

Turchyn said volunteering is a big aspect that went into preparing for the event.

“Our parents and students are volunteering to help set up Friday night, and then we’re looking at groups to help volunteer Saturday during the event.”

The Watson Taekwondo Club has begun their training for the event four days a week, two hours each time.

The competition itself will have two events, the first of which is patterns. Patterns are fundamental movements in a fixed and logical sequence.

“Each level has a specific one that they would do, then they get basically voted on which one wins and loses and they keep going until they get to the final,” Turchyn said. “The second one we’re doing is sparring, so it’s the combat part with the gloves, the feet and the helmet. So basically everybody does a two minute round with their opponent.”

The competition is open to the public and starts at 8:45 a.m. to early afternoon on Sept. 28.

“If they want to check it out it’s a good opportunity to see probably the best fighters in Saskatchewan. A lot of them are Canadian national team members so it’s a good event to come and watch and maybe get interested in one day joining.”