Canada has selected a record number of six karateka to contest this year's Pan American Games in Santiago ©Getty Images

The Canadian Olympic Committee is sending a record number of six athletes to take part in karate at this year's Pan American Games in Santiago.

Karate Canada are set to send four women and one man to compete in a variety of kumite weight categories, and one woman to compete in the kata discipline.

The kumite selections are Melissa Bratic, Hana Furumoto-Deshaies, Yamina Lahyanssa, Lily-Rose Nolet and Ryan O'Neil.

Claudia Laos-Loo will compete in kata.

Furumoto-Deshaies, who qualified for Santiago 2023 by winning the North American Cup, recently won her first Karate 1-Series A title and was a silver medallist at the 2023 Pan Am Senior Championships in the women’s kumite 55 kilograms event.

"I am very proud to have qualified for the Pan Am Games, knowing that I get to participate at the highest level for my sport outside of the Olympics," she said.

Canada has selected a record number of six karateka - including five women - to contest this year's Pan American Games in Santiago ©Getty Images
Canada has selected a record number of six karateka - including five women - to contest this year's Pan American Games in Santiago ©Getty Images

Lahyanssa is the Cali 2021 Junior Pan American Games champion and the 2023 Senior Pan Am titleholder in the women’s kumite 50kg event.

Her Cali 2021 win earned her direct qualification to Santiago 2023.

Nolet, a silver medallist at a Series A event in Cairo this spring, will compete in women’s kumite over-68kg, with Bratic, who earned bronze at the Senior Pan Am Championships in Costa Rica, representing in the 8kg category.

O'Neil will be the lone Canadian competing in men’s kumite, where he is in the 75kg category.

Nolet and O’Neil qualified for Santiago 2023 at the Last Chance Qualifier in Costa Rica, while Bratic also qualified by finishing winning her weight class at the North American Cup.

Laos-Loo earned her kata place in Santiago after winning at the Last Chance Qualifier, shortly after which she won bronze at the Senior Pan Am Championships.

"These are an extremely talented group of athletes who have all proven they can perform in pressure-packed situations," Rodney Hobson, sport technical leader, Karate Canada and one of three accompanying coaches along with Francois Persico and Pam Ross, said,


Nicole Poirier won one of Canada's only two medals in karate at the Pan American Games, lifting the title in the over-53kg category at Mar del Plata in 1995 ©Facebook
Nicole Poirier won one of Canada's only two medals in karate at the Pan American Games, lifting the title in the over-53kg category at Mar del Plata in 1995 ©Facebook

At the last Pan American Games in Lima four years, Canada won two silver medals thanks to Daniel Gaysinsky in the men's over-84kg and Kathryn Campbell in the women's 55kg.


The country's last gold medal in the Games was at Rio de Janeiro 2007 when Saeed Baghbani won the men's 70kg. 

Before that, it was Nicole Poirier in the women's over-53kg at Mar del Plata in 1995 when karate made its debut at the Pan American Games. 

Karate at Santiago 2023 is due to take place from November 3 to 5 at the Estadio Nacional.