Sixteen athletes will fly the flag for Australia at the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships after winning their division at the recent Senior World Taekwondo Championships selection event in Penrith.
Young guns Jake Buhagiar from Halls Taekwondo in Victoria and Matthew Summerfield from Rawlins Taekwondo in Western Australia made their mark on the senior ranks, each securing a spot on Australia's National Team.
Summerfield broke Australia's 14-year junior medal drought in 2022 after he fought his way to the semi-finals at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships to secure bronze.
Buhagiar blitzed the backend of the 2022 season with gold medals at the WT Presidents Cup, Oceania Championship, Tahiti Open and Australian Taekwondo National Championships, form that helped Buhagiar move into the categorised ranks as an Emerging athlete for 2023.
Summerfield, who was recently announced as a squad member for the National Performance Centre's Taekwondo Program, will be joined by fellow squad members and now national teammates, including Saffron Tambyrajah (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Stacey Hymer (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Reba Stewart (Halls Taekwondo, VIC), Bailey Lewis (City West Taekwondo, VIC), Tom Afonczenko (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Leon Sejranovic, (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Liam Sweeney (One Taekwondo, QLD) and Rebecca Murray (Edge Taekwondo, QLD).
Rounding out the team of 16 are Juliet Lahood (Global Martial Arts, NSW), Arash Mozhdeh (Mozhdeh Martial Arts, VIC), Emily Stellino (Global Martial Arts, NSW), Adam Meyers (The Story Centre, VIC), Molly Parks (Mozhdeh Martial Arts, VIC), and Amber Heslop (Forza Taekwondo, ACT) who will all make the trip to Baku in May.
The World Taekwondo Championships showcase the best senior black belts from 212 Member Nations of World Taekwondo. Since the first World Taekwondo Championships in 1973, Australia has medalled 19 times and is in the top 30 countries on the all-time medal tally.
The last Australian to medal at the Senior World Taekwondo Championships was Victorian Carmen Marton, with the three-time Olympian winning gold in 2013.
The World Taekwondo Championships will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from May 29 - June 4, 2023.
Applications are currently being accepted for team coaches to support the Head Coach during the World Championships tour - applications for this role close on March 4 at 5:00 pm (AEDT). To learn more and apply, please click here.
The Senior World Taekwondo Championships Selection Event was proudly supported by the Penrith City Council and hosted at Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre.
The Australian Taekwondo team brought its overseas tour to a triumphant close at the 8th Asia Taekwondo Indonesian Open (G2) in Jakarta, delivering some of the best results of the year. Against a fiercely contested international from South East Asia and beyond, the Australians returned eight medal: four gold, one silver and three bronze. In a remarkable show of strength, the team also accrued four major team awards for the event.
Eight Australians have been honoured at the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame in New York. Hear from our President Jean Kfoury OAM congratulating his fellow inductees.
In accordance with Section 10.3 of the Constitution, notice is hereby given that the 2026 Annual General
Meeting (AGM) of Australian Taekwondo (AT) will take place on 3:00pm (AEST) 2nd October 2026 in person at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) or via Video Conference.
The formal notice of meeting will be released on the 11th September 2026.
