Newell bros win gold at national karate champs
Oak Bay’s teenaged karate brothers Jean and Geoffrey Newell are national champions.
Jean, 14, and Geoffrey, 17, partnered with Emlyn Folkes to win gold in the Team Kata event for boys aged 14 to 17 years old at Karate Canada’s national championships in Toronto, March 15 to 17.
Geoffrey took home three awards, including being named the top junior male karate athlete of the year by Karate Canada. Geoffrey also won silver in Kumite (sparring) in the sub-55 kilograms junior men’s category for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Jean and Geoffrey defeated Ontario team in Team Kata with a nearly a perfect score.
The win qualifies them as members of Team Canada with a chance to represent Canada at the Pan American Games in Columbia this summer.
UVictim split ultimate Douglas Bowl with UBC
UVictim’s men's ultimate frisbee team won the inaugural Douglas Bowl 16-14 over the UBC Thunderbirds in extra pulls despite trailing most of the game at UVic on Saturday.
UVictim’s women’s team didn’t fare as well, falling 15-5 to the Thunderbirds.
MVP honours went to UVictim’s Kevin Underhill and Thunderbirds’ Kevin Greer for the men’s game and UVictim’s Kate Scarth and Thunderbirds’ Rena Kawabata for the women’s game.
More than 300 fans showed up to see the game.
UVictim now turns its attention to sectional and regional competitions, a series of play-downs that lead to the U.S.A. collegiate nationals.
Hockey players join traveling AAA Explorers
Two Victoria area bantam A hockey players have made the final cut and will join an elite traveling hockey team going to Europe next month.
Taylor Redmond, a defenceman with Saanich minor hockey and Lance Johnson, a goalie from Victoria minor hockey, are members of the Canadian AAA Explorers team, an Alberta based traveling team of 13-year-olds.
To make the team they endured 10 hours of skating in two days at tryouts in Bashaw, Alta., last summer.
Redmond was surprised to see an “A” stitched on the front of his home and away Explorers sweaters, when the alternate captain’s kit recently arrived by mail.
In a matter of 15 days the Explorers will play three different tournaments, one in Germany, one in the Czech Republic and one in Switzerland, as well as an exhibition game in Italy.
Previous Victoria members of the Explorers include Nolan de Jong, a former Saanich Braves minor hockey player now playing defence with the Victoria Grizzlies, with a scholarship commitment to play for the University of Michigan Wolverines next season.