For the second year in a row, Belleville native Yoko Dozono will coach Ontario athletes at a national championship tournament.
Dozono, the daughter of S.K.I. Belleville Karate School founder and chief instructor (sensei), Kenzo Dozono, now lives in Toronto. She’ll coach Team Ontario at the 2016 S.K.I.F. (Shotokan Karate International Federation) Karate Canada championships, Jan. 27-31 at Olympic Oval in Richmond, B.C
Among the athletes Dozono will coach in B.C. is Julia Wilson who trains under the tutelage of her father at S.K.I. Belleville. Wilson was recently named to the 70-member provincial squad.
Before getting into coaching, Yoko Dozono — a graduate of Nicholson Catholic College — competed and medalled at nine national championships, and multiple world, Pan Am and Commonwealth events. She has coached on the Team Canada staff at the S.K.I.F. world championships, and is scheduled to help guide national-calibre karate athletes at upcoming international competitions in Portugal and Indonesia.
The 70 Ontarians will compete next month in B.C. in age-group divisions from 12 to 21 and over. Some athletes competed at the 2015 Pan Am Games last summer in Toronto.
Wilson will compete in the 12-13 girls division in the plus-45 kilo weight class in kumite. She is a student at Queen Elizabeth Public School and has been training exclusively under the tutleage of Kenzo Dozono, a member of the Belleville Sports Hall of Fame, plus chairman and technical director of S.K.I.F. Canada.
Yoko Dozono said Wilson is part of an extremely strong Ontario delegation that is expected to produce several medals in B.C.
“We congratulate these athletes,” said Dozono. “Many of them will be at the peak age to perhaps qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. This is a very exciting time for these athletes to be competing at the national level.”
NEED TO KNOW: Kenzo Dozono has taught karate in Belleville since 1969; he was inducted into the Belleville Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
Courtesy of: Intelligencer