Garon Wilkinson, the Bermuda Sanshou Association president, has hailed the island’s impressive showing at the International Kungfu Taiji Online Tournament last month.

Bermuda’s 12-member team of Wushu athletes scooped ten medals, including three gold, four silver and three bronze, competing across a range categories at the event sanctioned by the Pan American Wushu Federation and United States of America Wushu-Kungfu Federations, Inc and organised by the National Tai Chi Wellness Foundation.

Jashae Allen Lamontagne and Celia Tuzo each earned two medals to lead the island’s charge.

Lamontagne won gold in the Shao Lin Hand Form and a silver in the Kung Fu Fan (single/twin).

Tuzo also won gold in the Shao Lin Hand Form and silver in the Sun Taiji Quan.

Austin Simons Jr won the island’s remaining gold medal in the Shao Lin Hand Form.

Talia Iris and Albert Simons both won silver in the Sun Taiji Quan.

The pair of Milahn Powell and Chloe Botelho earned the bronze medal in the Shao Lin Hand Form while Errin Cann, the youngest member of the team at age 9, secured bronze in the Elementary Long Fist.

“I was very, very pleased with the placings,” Wilkinson told The Royal Gazette. “We had a number of first, second and third placings, and as you can see our lowest placing was seventh, which goes to show the quality of the Bermuda team.

“We have always done well in traditional kung fu which most of the participants competed in as we as a tai chi. Most recently Talia Iris placed third in the China-Latin American and Caribbean States Taijiquan Online Competition earlier this year.”

He added: “I was particularly pleased with the number of participants we had, especially given that we haven’t competed in about two years.

“The online competition format isn’t necessarily for everyone. For some people it’s hard to get excited about competing with no spectators.

“We had to upload our videos by July 4, so there was a window of about a month in which we had to upload the particular form.

“There are a number of divisions depending on the style form that you are doing in addition to the age group you fall within.”