{"id":36350,"date":"2025-05-29T17:04:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T21:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36350"},"modified":"2025-06-05T16:17:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:17:20","slug":"shaolin-earns-7-gold-medals-while-hosting-martial-arts-provincial-championships-at-sarcs-desjardins-gym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/shaolin-earns-7-gold-medals-while-hosting-martial-arts-provincial-championships-at-sarcs-desjardins-gym\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaolin earns 7 gold medals while hosting Martial Arts Provincial Championships at SARC\u2019s Desjardins Gym"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jessie Ke Xin Yuan, Aggam Bawa, Tyrus Liu, Casey Bynoe, Gwyn Skjonsby, Ron Piklas, and Daniel Wakefield of Aurora\u2019s Shaolin Martial Arts club used their \u201chome court advantage\u201d to capture gold medals at the 2025 Ontario Championships held at SARC\u2019s Desjardins Gym on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

250 competitors from across the province displayed their combative prowess in Sanda and technical precision in Tao Lu in the Wushu Canada-sanctioned, two-day qualifier for the Junior Youth Olympics as well as the World University Games in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master Tim Wakefield, Director of Shaolin Martial Arts in Aurora, outlined two of the Martial Arts featured at SARC on the weekend: \u201cSanda is a fusion of Kung Fu from China and North American kickboxing. We have athletes from eleven Sanda clubs across Ontario here for the championships. We also have four of the forms of Tao Lu being performed for the judges\u2014all with compulsory components similar to figure skating: \u2018Dao\u2019 or Broad Sword, \u2018Jian\u2019 or Double-Edged Straight Sword, \u2018Guen\u2019 or Staff, and \u2018Qiang\u2019 or Spear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 9th<\/sup> degree Black Belt and 34th<\/sup> Generation Disciple of the Shaolin Temple in China expressed his satisfaction about the event: \u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve hosted the Ontario championships which is an honour, but it\u2019s really about watching young athletes develop and progress. Kids come in with a skills set and to watch them grow in the sport is most satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development of Wakefield\u2019s young athletes\u2014ranging from 9 to 18 years old\u2014was evident over two days of competition as Shaolin visited the podium seventeen times at SARC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Master Wakefield\u2019s seven gold medal winners, his Aurora-based Martial Arts club earned seven second-place finishes on the weekend with Chelsea Masucci, Christian Mann, Ricky Masucci, Nathaniel Mann, Albert Wu, Adam Piklas, and Kian Moosavi winning silver medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agrin Mousavian, Tom Shiskin, and Arvin Dadfar earned bronze at SARC to close out Shaolin\u2019s medal performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening ceremonies in the new $14M gymnasium in east Aurora on Saturday morning included a ribbon-cutting ceremony presided over by Head Judge Jennifer Gu of Wushu Canada, Executive President Sunny Tang from Wushu Canada, Deputy Consul Cheng Hongbo from the People\u2019s Republic of China Consulate, Mayor Tom Mrakas, Ward 1 Councillor and Sport Aurora President Ron Weese, and Wakefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a special weekend for Shaolin Martial Arts. Not only was Wakefield\u2019s venerable sports organization celebrating its thirtieth year of operation in Aurora, but it also had the distinction of hosting the first major event hosted at Desjardins Gym, which opened on April 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of athletes\u2014seated on the three blue training and competition mats arranged across the new gym\u2014listened attentively during the Opening Ceremonies to Deputy Consul Hongbo who noted that \u201cThis competition is a platform for connection.  Our athletes share our passion for the Martial Arts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hongbo invited all participants to \u201cenjoy the spirit and harmony of Wushu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas\u2014a significant advocate of youth sports in Town\u2014thanked Shaolin Martial Arts for hosting the event and praised its Director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks to Tim Wakefield for his leadership over the last thirty years\u2014shaping a generation of athletes in Aurora.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas praised \u201cthe time invested, as well as the determination and persistence demonstrated by the athletes gathered here today.  It\u2019s a privilege to host this event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his dual capacity as Ward 1 Councillor and President of Sport Aurora, Ron Weese noted the importance of the occasion and the significance of Wushu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to celebrate the first sport tournament in this new facility.  Welcome to Wushu Canada, the National Sports Organization responsible for selecting Canada\u2019s National Team for international competitions and providing essential resources and opportunities for clubs, coaches, and athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of Aurora\u2019s most influential sporting body expressed his \u201csincere appreciation to Club Director Tim Wakefield for his leadership and determination in bringing this historical event to our town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Weese wished the coaches and competitors \u201call great fortune and success this weekend as you pursue your worthy dreams.\u201d  He also addressed the hundreds of spectators by noting \u201cI am confident you will be inspired by the exceptional skills demonstrated throughout this competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessie Ke Xin Yuan, Aggam Bawa, Tyrus Liu, Casey Bynoe, Gwyn Skjonsby, Ron Piklas, and Daniel Wakefield of Aurora\u2019s Shaolin Martial Arts club used their \u201chome court advantage\u201d to capture gold medals at the 2025 Ontario Championships held at SARC\u2019s Desjardins Gym on Saturday and Sunday. 250 competitors from across the province displayed their combative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2025-05-29-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9si","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 05:07:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36354,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36350\/revisions\/36354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}