STORY: 4th Pan American KungFu Championships kicks off in Canada
DATELINE: Aug. 5, 2023
LENGTH: 00:10:17
LOCATION: TORONTO, Canada
CATEGORY: SOCIETY/SPORTS
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of the event
2. Sophia's performance
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SOPHIA, Contestant from the USA
4. Banyan Julian being rewarded
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BANYAN JULIAN, Contestant from the USA
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ANTHONY GOH, President of the Pan American Wushu Federation
 
STORYLINE:
 
The 4th Pan American KungFu Championships opened on Friday at the Pan-American Sports Center in the City of Markham, Ontario, Canada.
 
The event is co-hosted by the Pan-American Wushu Federation and the Canadian Wushu Federation. In addition to over ten traditional martial arts competitive events, the competition also includes some new contests for Wing Chun and Tai Chi.
 
Nearly 800 athletes from 11 member countries of the Pan-American Wushu Federation participated in the competition and performances.
 
SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SOPHIA, Contestant from the U.S.
"I'm Sophia, I (am) just doing this for like five years, (I'm from) USA Florida. I mean it first started off when I saw all the kids training, and they were doing the aerial jump, and I was like 'Oh I wanna learn that', and I never knew about Wu Shu, and then, they taught me the moves, the forms, the jumps, and I was like I like this, so I kept going.
I like it a lot, sometimes it gets a little bit hard and stressful, but like, keep going and you just get better."
 
SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BANYAN JULIAN, Contestant from the U.S.
"Hello, I'm Banyan Julian, I'm from the U.S. Wushu Center in Portland, Oregon. I won a gold medal in Bajiquan. I've been doing Wushu since I was like 6 years old, so like, 10 years, 10, 11 years. I like it a lot, it's like a way for me to release my emotions and let out stress.
I learned a lot about like, self-discipline and respect, and respecting your teachers especially. At like, normal high school, there's a lot of people who disrespect their teachers, but at Wushu it's all like, you know, very, very respectful to the teachers."
 
SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ANTHONY GOH, President of the Pan American Wushu Federation
"My name is Anthony Goh. I'm the president of the Pan American Wushu Federation. This is the 4th Pan American Kung Fu and Taichi Quan Championships. It is a traditional Kung Fu championship with the aim to promote the spirit of traditional martial arts. We have over 800 competitors here, today, from more than 10 countries, and this is very exciting. This is an excellent event. The Kung Fu event is a sport for our event, means it's not necessarily an elite competition, but it is something that people of different levels, different ages can participate.
The FISU is taking place right now in Chengdu. Wushu is part of it. In fact, I signed the agreement between the IWUF (International Wushu Federation) and the FISU in 2015 on behalf of the International Wushu Federation. I'm glad that Wushu has become a formal event of the FISU University Games."
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Toronto, Canada.
(XHTV)