By Danielle Kutchel
A Pakenham dojang has yielded an award-winning team at the recent Kukkiwon Australia Hanmadang 2019 competition in Glen Waverley.
Twelve competitors from Jae’s Taekwondo/Kickboxing took home medals at the June 9 competition – the youngest only six years old.
The competition allowed them to test their sparring skills against teams from other gyms.
JaeYong Jeon, owner of Jae’s Taekwondo, said his students trained hard in the lead up to the competition.
“We had extra training for the competition for the last five weeks, every Monday and Saturday where they learned sparring rules and how to score points. You need a lot of accuracy.”
Despite the daunting prospect of going up against more than 200 other competitors, Mr Jeon said he was confident his students would succeed – and they did, taking home eight gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
“They enjoyed the experience so much and the most important thing was they all gained so much confidence after the competition,” he said.
Jacob Ioten, one of the youngest competitors, said the competition challenged his strategic skills.
“There was a lot of strategy I had to put into it,” he explained.
“I had to put all my strength into my kicks. I beat someone by 30 points and I got a silver medal for my sparring.
“There was a lot of courage I had to put in to enter this, and I really enjoyed it.”
