First-ever Canada Games medals awarded for karate

The inaugural karate championships were held at the 2023 Canada Winter Games. (Jack Morse/CTV Atlantic)

Blink and you'll miss it: Just one short two-minute round decided the karate finals Thursday afternoon at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Summerside, P.E.I.

Team Quebec's Anton Gurin took home the first ever men's heavyweight gold with a powerful showing.

"I'm feeling tired a little bit, but I'm feeling great,” said Gurin. “My voice is a little bit lost, but it's alright.”

It's the first time karate has been included at the Canada Winter Games. Organizers said it's the kind of recognition the sport has been working toward for a long time.

"Within Canada, this really is, for me, the pinnacle,” said Craig Vokey, Karate Canada President. “To get in the Canada Games, and it's such a unique event for the developing athletes and everything. Fantastic."

Competitive karate has grown through independent tournaments to the national and international levels, then pan-am games, and in 2020, it was added to the Olympics for the first time.

However. Vokey said, for young competitors, the Canada Games is simply a different experience.

"You're on a provincial team. The provinces are bringing you,” said Vokey. “Anytime we have an opportunity to get together, because of that geography, where we can exchange notes."

Team B.C. took on Quebec in the final match for the female heavyweights.

In the end, British Colombia's Ella Crowle captured gold.

The first-ever female heavyweight Canada Games champ said they've proven karate can stand alongside more established Canadian sports.

"I think karate will stick in the Canada Games,” said Crowle. “And I think Karate Canada will definitely get the recognition it deserves."

It's the last day of karate as day six wraps up and week one nears its close.

The Canada Games debut is an opportunity for both the sport and the athletes who practice it to show off in front of a national audience in the country's biggest multi-sport event.