A local Hana Tae Kwon-Do black belt student nearly walked away with continental bragging rights at the toughest tournament of his young career.
Hana Tae Kwon Do martial artist Derek Perchard won his first two fights at the International Tae Kwon Do Federation’s PanAmerican Championship to advance to the gold medal round, before being edged out by an American opponent in the toughest fight of his life.
“All the people were really talented and it was definitely world level competition,” Perchard said. “It was the biggest challenge I’ve had so far in tae kwon do.”
The physicality and sheer violence of the PanAmerican tournament, June 14-17 in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, was also a new experience for the five-year veteran of Hana Tae Kwon Do.
“The contact was a lot different than the tournaments I’m used to,” Perchard said. “A couple people actually got knocked out and got some concussions because of the full contact rule. They were some good fighters and they hit really hard.”
However, Perchard’s opening tilt got him right into the competition.
“My first fight was the easiest one of the three, but it wasn’t easy by any means,” he said. “The kid was a bit smaller than me, but was pretty quick on his feet.”
In his second match and first versus a fellow Canadian, Perchard used his speed and angles to frustrate his opponent en route to victory. After a quiet first round in which both fighters cautiously danced around the referee’s warnings changed the course of the fight
“The referee got mad at us for not actually fighting so we picked it up in the second round,” Perchard said. “He liked to use his hands a lot and pretty much ran straight at me so I used my ring movement and countered a lot of his techniques.”
In the gold medal match, Perchard’s best offence was his commitment to defence.
“He was trying to set up his front leg and then come over with his hands, but I set him up with my counters and got a lot of points on him in the first round,” he said.
Despite his early point advantage, Perchard endured several distractions in the second round.
“He was a lot more aggressive and I was a bit exhausted in the second round and my coaches kept on shifting back and forth so I had a lot of people telling me different things,” he said. “I just tried keeping a level head and focused on the task.”
Perchard would end up on the wrong side of a tight scorecard to earn the silver.
The 15-year-old was competing in the Junior black belt middleweight division, featuring martial artists aged 14 to 17. The PanAmerican Championship awards points for each win going towards qualification for the World Championships. As a result of his successful PanAmerican tournament Perchard is all but assured a berth in the World Championships, hosted by Spain in 2013.
“I was at about 7,000 points beforehand and after my silver medal I’m at about 10,000 points,” Perchard said. “As long as I have more points in second and third place (in tournaments) I should be fine.”
The Grade 9 student at St. Ambrose School will be taking a much-deserved hiatus from the sport after completing two years of experience at the first-degree level. He will then begin preparation to test for the second-degree black belt in the fall.
