Martial artists capture hardware in Ireland

Two local martial artists from Benoit's Martial Arts brought home some hardware from Ireland, where they competed in the WKC World Championships Oct. 5-10.

Bradley Chaput earned three medals, while Marissa Meandro brought home a total of four medals.

Chaput competed in the boys under-17 classical kata division, bringing home a world title championship by winning the gold medal. He also competed with his partner, Meandro, winning a silver medal in team kata. Chaput earned a bronze medal in the 13-15-year-old boys hard-style kata division.

Meandro competed in five events over the course of the week, earning silver medals in both the girls under-17 classical kata division and girls under-12 hard-style kata divisions. She also earned a silver in team kata, alongside Chaput. Meandro also brought home a world title championship in traditional weapons kata, winning a gold medal. She place fifth in creative weapons.

The WKC World Championships featured teams from various countries that are associated with the WKC organization such as Canada, England, Mexico, Scotland, United States, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Each country sends its top four competitors which were decided at the national level in May. Numerous events such as point sparring and continuous fighting are extremely popular and very well attended. Forms and weapons events, which feature various karate styles, are also quite popular and well attended. Other styles of martial arts such as Chinese and Korean forms make up some of the other divisions of this competition.

Chaput and Meandro qualified this past spring in Ottawa to compete in a total of eight events at the World level.