On November 26, 2022, 14 athletes one umpire and a coach from Trinity Taekwon-Do Club in Cochrane and Water Valley dojangs attended the Western Canadian Championships in Lethbridge. 

The group faired well with 19 medals being brought home by participants. 

Black belt and coach, Cameron Macdonald with TKD says, " This was our biggest competition since the whole COVID hiatus from competitions and it was 403 competitors. We were supposed to send 16 but due to some illness, we ended up having 14 from our Cochrane and Water Valley clubs head down to compete, and that included both coloured belts and black belts from our club as well as an umpire and myself as a head coach." 

Typically, most colour belts compete in two categories in a patterns division doing a series of movements against another competitor and then they compete in a sparring match. The black and red belts also have an opportunity to compete in board-breaking competitions.

Macdonald says, "Out of the four events and all of our athletes, we ended up bringing home 19 medals which is pretty good we are pretty happy with that. For a couple of our students, it was their first-ever competition and that is always fun to highlight as well." 

The local participants ranged in age from as young as five years old up to adults. 

Macdonald says, "In the new year, we host our own local in-house tournament usually early in the new year probably the end of January or into February, and gives a lot of our younger athletes and new athletes a chance to try competition in a little bit less pressure less large scale event."

They will be also looking forward to the provincial championships happening on March 11 in Calgary and then the national championships in Vernon BC in May.

Macdonald promises to keep everyone posted on how everyone does. 

Trinity TKD athletesNine-year-old Lex Baker (yellow belt ) won a gold medal in sparring and a bronze in patterns. 
Nate Baker, age six, won bronze medals in both patterns and sparring in his first-ever competition.