Team Canada members Rita Ngo and Kenneth Lee, the current female and male karate national kata (forms) champions, brought their expertise to Kelowna on the weekend.
Recently both ranked top 15 in the world, Rita and Kenneth taught a guest kata seminar on Friday evening at Kelowna’s Rodney Hobson Karate Academy.
The pair are striving to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
“Kelowna is extremely lucky to have the opportunity to learn the skills and drills they use to be some of the best in the world,” said head instructor Rodney Hobson.
Rita and Kenneth are also based at the same club in Vancouver. They are on a short tour of the province this week to Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria to teach seminars local karate athletes.
Karate has become an established, worldwide sport recognized by the International Olympic Committee with over 100 million practitioners in 180 countries, with 80 per cent of them being under 18 years old.
Rodney Hobson Karate Academy offers both recreational and sports-karate programs, with competitive athletes having a pathway to the BC Games, the BC Team and the official Canadian national team, from which they can aim for international championships, including Olympic qualifiers.