As she packs for her trip across the pond, Calgarian Alana Mair will have to make sure she tucks away her second-degree black belt.
Mair, 30, is preparing to jet to England this weekend to compete in the Open Inter-Continental Championships for taekwondo in Swindon.
Mair is one of 20 athletes representing Team Canada during the two-day competition.
Despite the tough international competition, Mair said she’s ready for the tournament.
“I feel pretty good, we’ve been doing lots of really hard team training every second weekend.
We’ve all been getting together in Edmonton and going hard all weekend.”
She hasn’t just been training for the past few weeks. Mair has been going hard since she was 13, when she first started martial arts.
She also has a personal trainer and continues to train at her local club, Taurus Taekwondo.
While this tournament will mark her first trip to Europe, she has competed at the international level before.
“When I was in Chinese kick-boxing in my earlier twenties I made Team Canada and went to worlds in Vietnam,” she said.
After the tournament completes, Mair said she is looking forward to a few days of exploring England — hopefully she says, with a medal in her suitcase.
