Youth family trio brings home four medals from Tri-Cities Classic

On Saturday three siblings — Audrey Jenkins, Taylor Jenkins and Michael Jenkins Jr. competed in the Tri-Cities Triple Crown Classic Karate Tournament. Despite being ranked near the bottom in all of their events, all three athletes came home with at least one medal around their neck. The trio compiled four medals in total from the event.

Before the tournament began 12-year-old Taylor Jenkins told her father, “My goal is to bring medals back to Sandpoint.” Audrey, who is 8 years old, and Michael Jenkins Jr., who is just 6 years old, excitedly agreed with their older sister. To no surprise, that is exactly what the trio was able to do.

The tournament started with forms, also known as kata, a Japanese word describing detailed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. Michael Jr. and Audrey were the lowest ranked students in the event, but that didn’t seem to matter as both of them came home with two bronze medals.

Taylor was next up to compete, but when her name was called, she was the only competitor there. The tournament director approached Taylor’s parents, Michael and Sarah Jenkins, and asked if they wanted Taylor to compete alone and automatically take first place or compete on a higher level with more advanced students.

“I came here to win. Let’s do it,” Taylor said to her father.

After several rounds, Taylor finished the forms event with a silver medal. She fell just one vote short in the championship match to a competitor with a brown belt who has been competing for over five years. The Jenkins siblings have only been training for about seven months at Sandpoint Martial Arts.

The trio rounded out the tournament with point fighting. Michael Jr. finished the event in fourth place, just narrowly being defeated in overtime by the eventual division champion. Audrey suffered the same fate as she also finished fourth and lost to the eventual division champion by just one point.

Taylor was the last Jenkins’ sibling to compete on the day, and she was able to bring home the trio’s fourth medal. Taylor was the lowest ranked competitor, but she took the mat and never looked back. She quickly won both matches and finished the point fighting event in first place.

The Jenkins trio is looking forward to representing Sandpoint next at the Rainier Martial Arts Friendship Invitational which will be held in Tacoma, Wash., on Saturday, August 26.