Champions at the 2024 Canadian National Selection event!

Congratulates to all 30 athletes from Wayland Li that competed in the 2024 Canadian Nationals! 

Dates: August 3rd and 4th, 2024

Location: Markham Pan Am Centre, Toronto, Canada

Key Achievements:

• 10 athletes from Wayland Li selected to represent Canada on our Junior National Wushu team at the 9th World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei. Congratulations to:

  • A Group: Amanda Sun, Allen Liu, Chris Gao, Kai-Hsin Chang

  • B Group: Lia Tang-Ruggiero, Venus Li, Marcus Li

  • C Group: Thea Dong, Ryan Gao, Eason Gao

• 8 gold medals, 6 silver and 1 bronze for our Group A athletes Amanda, Chris, Allen, Kai-Hsin, Chloe and Ellie

• 9 gold medals, 7 silver and 7 bronze medals for our Group B athletes Lia, Venus, Marcus, Robert, Roberta, Lucas, Timmy, Johnny

• 6 gold medals, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals for Group C athletes Thea, Clara, Ryan and Eason

• 6 gold medals, 3 silver and 2 bronze for Senior athletes Erica, Rex, Caleb and Antigone

• 3 gold medals, 5 silver medals and many top 5 finishes for Open Recreational athletes Ashany, Madison, Ella, Louise, Jacob, Lucas and Tommy.

• Rex Lam was the 2024 Canadian National Champion for senior male athletes, and Erica Li was the 2024 Canadian National Champion for senior female athletes

• Open recreational events: 8 students participated in competition for the first time, taking home many gold, silver and bronze medals.

The 2024 Canadian Junior National Wushu Team: (front row from right to left): Allen, Chris, Kai-Hsin, Virginia, Amanda, Julianna, Marcus, Junchen, Lia and Venus; (middle row from right to left): Ryan, Eason, Melissa and Thea.

Congrats to all athletes at National Team Trials!

Congratulates to all 27 athletes from Wayland Li that competed in the 2022 Canadian Nationals at Thunder Bay, Ontario!

Your hard work and years of training paid off.

Key Achievements:

• 7 athletes (Caleb Akai, Lia Tang-Ruggiero, Amanda Sun, Allen Liu, Venus Li, Sophia Liao, Marcus Li) from Wayland Li selected to represent Canada at the 8th World Junior Wushu Championships in Indonesia. 3 athletes on the reserve team (Ashley Liu, Chris Gao and Eason Gao). Congratulations team!

• 2 athletes (Erica Li and Rex Lam) from Wayland Li’s Senior Division to represent Canada at the 2023 World Wushu Championships in the United States. 1 athlete on reserve team (Ashley Liu). Well done!

• Group A: 1 gold medal, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals among Caleb, Kai-Hsin, Ashley and Ruth.

• Group B: 8 gold medals, 3 silver and 3 bronze among Lia, Amanda, Chloe, Allen and Chris.

• Group C: 6 gold medals, 6 silver and 2 bronze among Venus, Sophia, Clara, Marcus and Eason.

• Seniors: 3 gold medals, 2 silver and 3 bronze among Erica, Rex, Ashley, and Kai-Hsin. Top 5 finishes for Tiggy and Caleb.

• Open recreational events: 9 students participated in competition for the first time, taking home 1 gold, 18 silver and 6 bronze medals. Well done Ellie, Angelica, Oliver, Benjamin, Jerrica, Thomas, Michael, Alex and Brianna!

We're in the news about National Team Selections!

On July 29-31, 2022, twenty-seven athletes from Wayland Li Wushu participated in the 2022 Canadian National Wushu Championships and the event received both local and national news coverage.

Jia you!!! 加油！

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CBC News Article

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/martial-arts-championships-thunder-bay-1.6536588

Three-day event includes demonstrations, national team qualifiers

CBC News · Posted: Jul 30, 2022 6:00 AM ET | Last Updated: July 30

Hundreds of martial artists from across Canada are in Thunder Bay, Ont., this weekend for a major showcase event.

The 2022 Canadian Martial Arts Championships and Festival began Friday evening with an opening gala. The event continues Saturday and Sunday at Lakehead University's C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.

"It's a very special and unique event," said managing coordinator Alan Tang of WushuOntario. "It's the first time being held in northern Ontario and of course, in Thunder Bay."

Tang said the event has more than one purpose. Not only is it part of the selection process for Canada's national wushu — defined by WushuCanada as "an officially recognized sport by the International Olympic Committee representing the essence of the Chinese Martial Arts" — but it will also hopefully spread awareness about the sport in the northern Ontario region.

"Many people have seen it, they just haven't realized it or recognized it for what it is," he said of wushu. "They see it in movies and film all the time, through Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, all Chinese kung fu action-based movies."

"This is the sport and the activity that people learn behind it."

Tang himself works in the film industry. He's amassed a number of credits, working as stunt coordinator, trainer, or performer in several well-known films, including: Marvel's Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings, Jupiter's Legacy, Birth of the Dragon, In the Tall Grass, Skyscraper, and Netflix's upcoming live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

"We're educating them on the different elements of the sport, the different styles," Tang said. "Much like when you're looking at gymnastics, you have parallel bars, you have floor routines, you have rings.

"In wushu, you have the straight sword, or the broadsword, the staff, the spear," he said. "These are terminologies that we really want to educate the public on.

"We want to educate them on the history and as well the athletes and how athletic the sport is," he said. "So many [people] know it as kung fu, as the traditional North American term. But wushu is the Olympic sport-recognized term for it."

Tang said the Thunder Bay event will help qualify athletes for the world and world junior championships, which are taking place in Indonesia in December.

And while the competitors appearing at this weekend's championships are very skilled, martial arts is beneficial to everyone, Tang added.

"What differentiates wushu from, say, other sports, is it is a recreational activity that can be practiced by both young and old," Tang said. "You can start at age three, and it's a lifelong sport that you can practice."

"And the reason why is that there are so many different elements of it," he said. "There are health elements, such as a very popular one, which is tai chi. Tai chi is a part of the wushu curriculum, and you'll see both senior athletes participating in competition, as well as young athletic teenagers participating in competition.

"So it provides such a wide variety and such a diversity of action that it keeps a lot of athletes engaged and involved."

Thunder Bay's Brian Nieminen, a volunteer with the weekend's event, has been studying tai chi for about 15 years.

"All martial arts ultimately are very, very similar in the sense that they train the body," he said. "And if you want to fight, you have to harden your body, strengthen your body, whether it's tai chi or any other martial art.

"But most people aren't doing it for fighting," he said. "Most people are doing it for their health."

Nieminen said he hopes the championships will provide some benefits to Thunder Bay.

"It's very good for the city because we're drawing in people from all across Canada," he said. "Many of them, probably most of them, are coming here for the first time.

"It gives us a chance to showcase … our city and our hospitality," Nieminen said. "From the martial arts standpoint, hopefully it'll generate more interest than ever."

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Local Television on national team selections!

We train for the 2022 Canadian Wushu Team Trials!

The 2022 Canadian National Wushu Championships will be held from July 28 to 31st in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We are super excited to be training and sending a superb team to the national team trial selections. All the best to all athletes and take this time to train hard!!!

The venue will be held at Lakehead University and will feature High Performance Wushu athletes, traditional Kungfu, Taiji and Sanda events.

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Athletes that make the Canadian National team will have the opportunity to compete in the World Junior Wushu Championships this December, which will be held in Indonesia.

Good luck to everyone and train hard!!

加油！

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2019 Canadian National champions!

Congratulates to all 39 athletes from Wayland Li that competed in the 2019 Canadian Nationals! 

The event was held on May 25-26, 2019 and featured the very best athletes from across Canada in the sport of Wushu. The event was a qualifier to select the national senior team that will represent Canada at the 15th World Wushu Championships in Shanghai, China.

Based on their excellent performance, 3 athletes from Wayland Li Wushu were selected for the Canadian National team - congrats Dylan, Erica and Rex!

2018 Canadian National Junior Wushu Team Selections

Congratulates to all 30 athletes from Wayland Li that competed in the 2018 Canadian Nationals on May 19-20, 2018! 

Key Achievements:

• 7 athletes from Wayland Li Wushu selected to represent Canada on the Junior National Wushu Team, including Rex Lam, Rasa Rahnema, Erica Li, Caleb Akai, Zeina Shaltout, Adam Shaltout and Kai-Hsin Chang.
   
• 19 athletes participated in High Performance taolu divisions, finishing with gold, silver and bronze medal achievements.
   
• Open events: 10 students participated in competition for the first time, taking home several gold, silver and bronze medals.

Results from 2017 Canadian National Wushu Championships

Congratulations to the 39 Wayland Li athletes that competed in the 2017 Canadian Wushu Nationals!  This year’s performance was outstanding for both our experienced competitors and students participating in their first competition.

• Erica Li selected as part of the Canadian National Team.  She will be travelling to Kazan, Russia later this year for the World Wushu Championships representing Canada. Congrats Erica!
   
• Seniors Group: Seven athletes took home 4 gold medals, 4 silver and 3 bronze.
   
• Group A: One athlete won three gold medals for changquan, daoshu and gunshu.
   
• Group B: 8 athletes from Wayland Li took home 7 gold medals, 8 silver and 4 bronze.
   
• Group C: 9 athletes from Wayland Li took home 8 gold medals, 6 silver and 4 bronze.
   
• Open events: 21 students participated in competition for the first time, taking home 11 gold medals, 8 silver and 13 bronze.

2017 International Wushu Sports Festival & National Championship

Canada's national Wushu competition will take place on May 20-21, 2017 at the Markham Pan Am Centre.

This year's event will feature athletes competing in traditional taolu events, contemporary taolu events, Sanda sparring events and qualifying trials for the Senior National team.

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snapd Markham coverage of Wayland Li at 2016 Canadian Wushu Nationals

snapd Markham profiled some of our athletes at the 2016 Canadian National Wushu/Kung-fu and Taiji Championships.  Check out the Facebook post and snapd article.

snapd Markham page available here (https://markham.snapd.com/event/956316#/).

2016 Canadian National Wushu/Kung-Fu Taiji Championships

We had 20 athletes from Wayland Li participate in this year's Junior Nationals. The team took home 39 medals across ranked taolu events (15 gold, 15 silver and 9 bronze).

In addition, 7 athletes from our school were selected to represent Canada on the national junior team (Nima, Remy, Rex, Erica, Zeina, Ashley and Adam). 

Congratulations to everyone!

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