When Halycon Miers started karate, she was 41 years old and didn't know what the future held.
Now, she and eight other karate students have been invited to Estonia to participate in the Kimura Shukokai Karate European Championship from Oct. 2 to 6.
"I never thought I'd be doing karate in my 40s. Never thought I'd be competing internationally," Miers said.
Miers trains with Sensei David Bentley at Deep Cove as part of the Kimura Shukokai Karate system and has other dojos at Brentwood Bay, West Shore, and Royal Oak.
Travelling and competing with students from around the globe is something Miers said she is looking forward to as training with the same group of people can get repetitive.
"They tend to be the same ladies I train with," Miers said. "So it is just nice when you can fight somebody different."
Sensei Krista Chase and her daughters Kali and Annika train at the dojo and have made practicing karate a family activity.
"We have a bunch of families train together, they with their kids and train," Chase said.
The European Championship is divided into kata and kumite. Kata is a sequence of offensive and defensive techniques that simulates virtual fighting. Kumite is score-based, time-limited, controlled fighting. Both are incredibly physical, Chase said.
"It is a mental challenge as well as a physical one," Chase said.
Meghan Wiebe, 40 years old, started her karate journey seven years ago when her son was in kindergarten. Although her son has since stopped, Wiebe has continued practicing karate.
"I thought I would inspire him to join back up, but I did not," Wiebe said.
The group is primarily an all-female team, with a solo male practitioner travelling with the team.
"We have three veteran ladies. Issac, he's in the adult male division," Chase said. "One of my daughters is in the adult division. The other daughter would be in the 16-17 category. Two more of them are in the 16-17 category. Gigi is the youngest. She is 13."
Sensei Bentley has been an instructor for 36 years and has trained in the Shukokai style for 38 years. Kimura Shuokai Karate is practiced in countries from South Africa to Norway.
Once the European Championships in Estonia are finished, the squad will prepare for the KSI World Championships in Finland 2025.
"We are heading there in June 2025," said Issac Petrick, second-degree black belt.
Petrick travelled with the team and said they went to Switzerland in 2022, where the team faced sweltering heat and fierce competition from the Portugal team.
"It was 30-40 degrees," Petrick said.
The team has a GoFundMe to help raise $5,000 for the European Championships and can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-canada-west.
