Sylvan Lake black belt martial artist Brandon Tweed proved his strengths in karate and kickboxing by winning two medals in the World Karate and Kickboxing Commission (WKC) Canadian National Championships in Ottawa last month.
Tweed, 17, competed in the point and continuous sparring competitions, taking home the silver medal for point sparring and the gold medal for continuous sparring.
This is the fifth national championship Tweed has competed in, and winning the medals made him qualify for Team Canada.
As part of Team Canada, he will compete in the next WKC competition in Orlando, Florida, next November.
This will be the third time Tweed competes in a world championship.
In 2013 he competed in Italy and won fifth place. He also competed in Spain when he was in Grade 9 and won silver.
Tweed said he has been involved in karate and kickboxing since he was a young child. He continues to train in Red Deer four nights a week at Arashi Do.
“Winning an international championship is my ultimate goal,” Tweed said. “It would be really awesome to be a world champion. My instructor is a world champion and he has trained other world champions, and it would be cool to be in the ranks with those guys.”