A Sylvan Lake couple competed in a world championship Goju-ryu Karate event in Hamilton, Ontario recently.
Carri and Dion Rogers, who train out of White Tiger Martial Arts in High River, Alberta, flew to Hamilton along with their instructor Norman Mahar and two other competitors to try their craft against some of the best Goju-ryu competitors in the world. Goju-ryu is Japanese for hard-soft style and the main traditional Okinawan style of karate according to whitetigerkarate.ca
Carri won silver medals in sparring, forms and weapons and Dion won gold in weapons and bronze in forms. The medals came as a surprise to the Roger family.
We went in for the fun of it and it turns out we did better then we ever would have thought,” Dion said. “We practiced like we normally practiced and we did well.”
Carri added “We wanted to go and make it through, so to come out and place was really great.”
The Rogers take weekly trips to High River to practice their form of karate and were excited to mingle with Goju-ryu practitioners from all over the world.
“We met so many people and we even met the guy who brought our style to Canada,” Dion said. “We have made connections. We have met other people and heard stories - it was an unbelievable experience.”
With confidence running high, the Rogers are looking forward to another competition in Vancouver in 2017. The world championship event in Hamilton was a bi-annual event that they will compete again in 2018.
The Rogers hope to one day open their own training facility. That process is at a fledging stage; however, it has been encouraged by their Instructor Maher. The Rogers humbly shared the news of their success in Ontario to honour their instructor.
“We aren’t normally the people that put things out there but we wanted to let people know for our instructor,” Dion said.
If you would like more information about Goju-ryu Karate, you can log on to whitetigerkarate.ca.
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com