Logan Bruder, right, executes a back-kick as he splits a piece of board held by Cody Quevillon, left, and Ken Janzen.

Richard Froese
South Peace News
Scorpion Taekwondo Club of High Prairie celebrated another season with several students moving up in belts on April 20.

“Testing is a hard thing to do,” says head instructor Master Melissa Isaac. “To challenge yourself and put yourself in uncomfortable situations is very difficult.”

Each student deserved their promotions, she says.

“To qualify for this testing you’ve had to commit to 30-40 hours of training, stretching body parts you didn’t know you had, learning another language, and testing in front of multiple instructors during a pre-test,” Master Isaac says.

– Promotion to Eighth Gup Yellow Belt: Cody Arams, Joseph Belesky, Dutch Degner, Megan Laderoute, Zoey Mar- czyk, Ryder Peters, and Isabelle Roy.
– Promotion to Seventh Gup Green Stripe: Hadil Elhasaeri.
– Promotion to Sixth Gup Green Belt: Rylan Arams, Lucas Billings and Kaiden Masson.
– Promotion to Fifth Gup Blue Stripe: Elly Belesky, Lyndi Bilyk, Osama Elhasaeri, Blair Masson, and Joe Ostermeier.
– Promotion to Fourth Gup Blue Belt: Abby Bilyk, Levi Bilyk, Max Janzen, and Coby Masson.
– Promotion to Third Gup Red Stripe: Jamie Bilyk, Kelsey Bilyk, Liam Bilyk, Braelyn Dallaire, Michelle Dall- aire, Nya Demeule, Hunter Laderoute, Alex Linteris, Owen Oster- meier, Brianne Sanders, Adheem Sharkawi, and Kaamal Sharkawi.

Three students won medals at the Western Canadian Tournament of Champions in Calgary on April 22.

Michelle Dallaire won gold in poomse, Amira Sharkawi won gold in sparring, and Braelyn Dallaire won gold in poomse and silver in sparring.

Master Isaac and Amira Sharkawi will compete in the Canadian National Taekwon- do Championships in Calgary May 25-28.

Master Isaac is currently ranked second in Alberta for the under-4 women’s sport poomse category and Sharkawi is ranked fifth for the cadets 12-14 sport poomse category and 21st in cadet under 50-kg sparring category.

Three students won medals at the Western Canadian Tournament of Champions in Calgary April 22. Left-right, are: Michelle Dallaire, gold in poomse; Amira Sharkawi, gold in sparring; and Braelyn Dallaire, gold in poomse and silver in sparring.

High Prairie Scorpion Taekwondo Club students at testing night. In front, left-right, are Megan Laderoute, Isabelle Roy, Hadil Elhasaeri, Kaiden Masson, Joseph Belesky, Ryder Peters, Dutch Degner, Cody Arams, Levi Bilyk, Abby Bilyk, and Elly Belesky. In the middle, left-right, are Coby Masson, Max Janzen, Liam Bilyk, Zoey Marczyk, Rylan Arams, Logan Bruder, Lucas Billings, Blair Masson, Nya Demeule, Adheem Sharkawi, Alex Linteris, Kaamal Sharkawi, Braelyn Dallaire, Joe Ostermeier, Amira Sharkawi, and head instructor Master Melissa Isaac. In the back row, left-right, are instructor Reece Pratt, senior instructor Diane Rosser, Davin Degner, Lyndi Bilyk, Osama Elhasaeri, Hunter Laderoute, Kelsey Bilyk, Jamie Bilyk, Brianne Sanders, Michelle Dallaire, and instructor Ken Janzen. Missing in the photo is Owen Ostermeier.

Awards for best skills were presented to several members. Left-right, are Coby Masson, best sparring; Megan Laderoute, best pattern; Michelle Dallaire, best test; Zoey Marczyk, best board break; and Kelsey Bilyk, best self defence.