Twenty rising stars will represent Australia at the World Taekwondo Cadet Championships in Bosnia and Herzegovina next month after the national team was selected in Morayfield, Queensland.
The selection event saw over 80 Cadets battle it out for a spot in one of the 20 divisions on offer, with athletes who placed first in their nominated division selected for the team.
Flying the flag for Australia in August will be Lawson Knight (One Taekwondo School), Theodore Kaing (Notorious Martial Arts), Kerim Yilmaz (Olympic Taekwondo Centre), Lucas Lai (Notorious Martial Arts), Elijah Wu (Martial Arts Spirit), Jayden Vuong (Revolution TKD & BJJ), Bilal Atay (Hall's Taekwondo), Jack Orchard (Martial Arts Spirit), Leonardo Angell (Musa Taekwondo), Kian Jones (Adelaide Taekwondo Academy), Matilda Purvis (Adelaide Taekwondo Academy), Kierah Ly-Diep (Forza Taekwondo), Mackenzie Macdonald (Hall's Taekwondo), Lacie Gleeson (Hall's Taekwondo) Andrea Ishac (Hall's Taekwondo), Chelsea Gomez (Taya Taekwondo), Phoebe Fan (Adelaide Taekwondo Academy), Elle-Maree Ghetto-Tarantolo (Irontiger Australia), Zahra Karaki (Global Martial Arts AU) and Akon Baak (Total Taekwondo Academy).
Olympic gold medallist Dongmin Cha has been appointed Australian Cadet National Coach as part of his role in delivering his bilateral coach/athlete development partnership between Kukkiwon, the Korean Embassy and Australian Taekwondo.
Rounding out the coaching group will be Jerry Moraitis (Halls Taekwondo), Ruth Hock (Adelaide Taekwondo Academy) and Abby Sangalang (Taya Taekwondo), who will provide further support to Dongmin leading into the competition and while overseas.
The World Taekwondo Cadet Championships will be held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovnia, from August 28 to August 31, 2023.
To see all results for the 2023 World Taekwondo Cadet Championships Selection event, please click here.
It has been an action-packed start to 2024 for the Australian Taekwondo National Performance Pathways program and the tangible outcomes already appear promising.
Athletes kicked off the year in full force with a four-day training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Combat Centre – a multi-sport Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Canberra.
At the age of six, Amy Tierney – now the Owner and Head Instructor at Tierney’s Taekwondo Academy in NSW – discovered Taekwondo through a lucky break. Originally from Ingleburn in the south-west of Sydney, Tierney attempted to take up boxing at nearby Campbelltown PCYC, only to be told by an instructor that “girls don’t box”.
International Taekwondo events are set to return to Brisbane in 2024, with the World Taekwondo President's Cup (Oceania) and the Australian Open confirmed for September 18-22 at Nissan Arena. Open to the world's top black belts, athletes from World Taekwondo's 212 Member National Associations are invited to attend.
