One fighter is heading to the Worlds; another is in a whole new world altogether than the one she knew more than a decade ago.

Truth is that in all likelihood, each of the five combatants who represented the Sudbury Kickboxing Academy at the 2026 WAKO Canada National Championship in Toronto has an interesting and unique story to tell.

With all five on hand at the Thursday night workout sessions, we managed to squeeze in some time to find out a little more of their stories.

A 15 year-old grade nine student at Lockerby Composite, Nico Selby will actually make her second trek to Junior Worlds, heading to Jesolo Lido (Italy) in September. Last time around, the long-time soccer player turned kickboxer during the pandemic had qualified for the global meet, but could not compete due to a concussion.

This time around, she is very much looking forward to facing a much larger pool of talent than nationals in a discipline that worked out as a wonderful alternative when she realized her passion for the pitch simply was no longer there.

“I played soccer growing up and was always very aggressive,” said Selby, who still worked in time during her first year at LCS to suit up on the school’s varsity girls soccer team with older sister Lilah. “When I quit soccer, my mom said I had to do something. She had done boxing for a while and her friend recommended this (kickboxing).”

It did not take Selby long at all to realize that aggression alone would not be the blueprint to long-term success in the ring. “A big part of this is cardio – and I never expected that,” she said.

“And it’s not always the toughest fighters that will be good. It’s more about technique. That took me a while to learn, understanding that part of it is how snappy your punches are. Turn your shoulders and you get more explosiveness on your punches.”

Over the past weekend, Nico Selby was crowned national champion in kick light (junior B female – 55kg) and low kick (junior B female – 56kg – novice), with teammate Keenan Thomson also securing a pair of belts (kick light – senior male – 84kg; low kick – senior male – 86kg – novice).

Also making her way to the top of the podium was Angela Rainville (kick light – veteran female – 65+kg) while both Gillian Jokinen (kick light – senior female – 65kg) and Liam Davis (kick light – intermediate male – 79kg) finished as the runner-up in their respective brackets.

Facing the same opponent twice in a two day span, Selby found herself with a need to change course on the fly. “I always have a game plan going into my fights,” she said. “You kind of get a feel usually in the first minute of a round about what is working, what’s not working.”

“In my final fight, she definitely studied my style. Everything that was working in my first fight was not working in this fight.”

Though she came at this with a far different mindset, 42 year-old Angela Rainville can absolutely relate to the notion of a mid-fight turning point.

Making her third appearance at nationals, Rainville emerged as champion for the very first time, picking up the win against an opponent in the final that she had never faced before.

“Once I got in there, I realized that she had a lot of power over me, so I couldn’t do what my coaches wanted me to do,” explained Rainville. “I had to change the game plan. She was heavier, but I had better hands and had to be more aggressive, which is my normal style.”

To be frank, none of this past weekend would have been considered “normal” in the view of Rainville when she first stepped foot in the Sudbury Kickboxing Academy back in 2015 – solely with an eye towards being more fit and dropping some weight.

Now some eighty pounds lighter, Rainville has come an awful long way – even if the notion of competing in sparring in the ring was something that a more keen eye could detect, right from the outset.

“After my first class, Dawn (coach Dawn Culgin) said that we are going to put you in the ring some day,” said Rainville with a laugh. “I was always kind of scared, but she slowly progressed me. I’m still a little scared but using those nerves to propel me forward.”

“After the first fight, I realized that I can do this – that I really like this.”

Even the combat part?

“Really, you are just helping each other develop and become better at the sport. It’s actually a lot of fun.”