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Prince Rupert youth wins gold at taekwondo tournament

She returns home a two-time provincial champ
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Master Paul Bozman, Kaycee Chan, and Kai Chan after Kaycee won gold at the BC Taekwondo Championships. (Photo: Supplied)

Two martial arts students from Prince Rupert brought home medals from the BC Taekwondo Championships in Vancouver, coach Paul Bozman said on May 13.

Kaycee Chan won gold after winning her sparring match in the April 9 competition, where teammate Nathan Bautista also travelled and won bronze.

Chan is a red belt, just two steps away from being a black belt, said Paul Bozman, her instructor at the Prince Rupert studio. This is her second time winning gold at provincials, the first was before the pandemic.

She is a multi-sport athlete who also participates in track and field and dance.

“She’s always really busy and I just thought it was cool that she still went out and defended her title,” said her brother, Kai Chan.

Kai also does taekwondo, as does another brother of theirs and Kaycee trains with them. She has been training for about four years and her goal is to make it to the Olympics.

Bautista is new to taekwondo and this was his first tournament. He got bronze in both sparring and forms.

Due to his age, Bautista had to compete at a belt level above his own.

“He did well considering it’s his first tournament,” Bozman said.

“With the pandemic, we haven’t been down to the tournaments for just over two years now. So it’s been a nice change to get back into the swing of things.”

“It was huge this year. I think that’s because of the pandemic affecting it for the last two years that everybody’s just wanted to get out and compete this time,” the coach said.

“It’s always an inspiration for the kids that don’t make it, to know some of our guys did well.”