Sudbury fighters competing at Nationals

There will be a large contingent of Sudbury competitors heading to the National Kickboxing Championships in Burlington this week.

Team Shredder has 12 fighters competing — ranging in age from 16 years old to 43 years old.

Head coach Yves Charette said this is a large group of competitors for any city in Ontario.

“Sudbury is very quickly developing a relationship as a city with top-notch fighters,” said Charette, who has been involved in martial arts for three decades,

“We have been doing well on the amateur level — and in the past years we’ve even made significant moves into the professional ring as we’ve seen with UFC bantamweight Mitch Gagnon who came out of Team Shredder and just won his latest fight. There is no doubt people are taking notice of Sudbury.”

Two of the Sudbury competitors, Emilie Charette, 17, (Charette's daughter) and Greg Sutcliffe, 16, will also be trying to qualify to be members of Canada’s National Team.

Charette points out that all of these amateur competitors are extremely dedicated — they have full-time jobs, full-time studies, families and bills to pay — on top of their gruelling training schedule at Team Shredder, housed at the non-profit Northern Ontario Multi-Discipline Athletic Arts Academy (NOMDAAA) on Lorne Street.

“They are in here training five to six days a week for hours on end — on top of their full-time day-to-day obligations,” said Charette, “We have moms, dads, business owners, students — all dedicated to excellence. So, it is so exciting for us to see them preparing for the Nationals where they’ll represent Sudbury."

The National Kickboxing Championships are sanctioned and organized by the Council of Amateur Sport Kickboxing (CASK).

The event runs from April 25-27 in Burlington, Ont.