Portage Premier Taekwondo took part in the Winter Classic tournament in Winnipeg this past weekend and fared quite well.

There were 198 total participants with nine of those being Portage representatives. The club came out with three gold, three silver, and four bronze medals placing them third out of the 16 clubs in attendance. Head instructor Evelyn Hoogerdijk talks about how difficult these competitions can be.

"It gets harder as time goes by to prove yourself and work up to a standard," says Hoogerdijk. "The onus is on the person to have a lot of training in class as well as at home to prepare for that."

She adds they had two members compete in their first tournament ever and she says she was extremely proud of both of them.

Hoogerdijk describes what these types of tournaments look like.

"They usually begin with forms or patterns as they're called, competitions which have a double-elimination set-up," says Hoogerdijk. "By noon, they usually get through all of that and they start on sparring. Sparring matches last about a minute to three minutes long depending on what your belt rank is. That is in a controlled environment but it does involve a lot of striking with your foot."

This is the second of four sanctioned tournaments happening in Manitoba this season. Portage Premier Taekwondo will also be attending the next two tournaments taking place in March and May respectively.