Two young athletes from Richmond represented Team Canada in Indonesia last week.
Team Canada has won six medals at an international martial arts competition, its best result in history.
The team consisted of 13 young athletes, including two athletes from Richmond, who won one gold, one silver and four bronze at the 8th World Junior Wushu Championships. Team Canada placed 14th overall in the world.
Richmond athletes Junchen Yang, 11, and Johnny Filtness, 14, made their international debuts.
Yang placed fifth for daoshu (broadsword) in the 11 and under category, while Filtness won bronze in the 56kg category for sanda (Chinese kickboxing). Both trained at the SYL Wushu Taichi Qigong Institute in Richmond.
More than 46 teams, including Canada, participated in the competition held in Tangerang, Indonesia.
More than 700 athletes from around the world participated in the international competition this year.
The Canadian team was led by coaches Helen Liang and Chenhan Yang from the SYL Wushu Taichi Qigong Institute in Richmond and Wayland Li from Toronto.
Team Canada athletes range in age from nine to 17 and were selected at the 2022 Canadian Martial Arts Championships and Festival held in Thunder Bay, Ontario. earlier this year.
Wushu is one of four new sports to feature in the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, along with baseball5, skateboarding and surfing.
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