Some of Prince Albert’s best martial artists showed their stuff at a tournament over the weekend, with several qualifying for provincial and national championships.

Students from the Kuro Tora Dojo competed at the Dalmeny Toma Dochi Open Martial Arts Tournament.

Instructor Wolfgang Manicke, who also competed, said he was proud of his students for their accomplishments.

“Some of them are seasoned veterans. Some of them went with me to the world championships in Europe when we went over there,” he said.

Seven of Manicke’s students, as well as Manicke himself, finished in first or second in a discipline, earning an invitation to nationals in Montreal.

Others earned points towards qualifying for provincials in Regina.

Both those tournaments will take place this coming June.

Manicke said the success came from hard work.

“We’re always training. Every night,” he said. “We have tournaments amost every month. We have a certain group we go to tournaments with.”

Some of those tournaments serve as qualifiers for provincials.

“They’re circuits,” Manicke explained. “You have to get a certain amount of points to make it to provincials.”

In addition to those major tournaments down the road, local students are working hard in advance of their home tournament, Fire and Ice, which will be held at the Alfred Jenkins Fieldhouse on February 18.

For more on this story, please see the Feb. 1 print or e-edition of the Daily Herald