For the very first time in Malaysia’s history, the national Taekwon-Do team managed to win 5 Gold Medals, in addition to 1 Silver and 2 Bronze at the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) World Cup 2022.
ITF World Cup 2022 is the biggest Taekwon-Do tournament in the world, consisting of 52 countries and was held in Slovenia from 1st to 9th of October, where the Malaysian delegation made history.
The Gold Medalists are as follows:
1) 2-time Consecutive World Cup Team Pattern Champion for Australia in 2018 and Slovenia in 2022, the athletes were:
– Wong Chun Weng (33 years old)
– Wong Jian Yang (21 years old)
– See Kean Piew (36 years old)
– Chen Wei Yang (23 years old )
– Lee Hoong Wai (24 years old)
2) Gold Medal for Individual Male 4-6 Dan Pattern
– See Kean Piew (36 years old)
3) Silver Medal for Individual Male 3rd Dan Pattern
– Lee Hoong Wai (24 years old)
4) Gold Medal for Individual Male 2nd Dan Pattern
– Chen Wei Yang (23 years old)
5) Bronze Medal for Individual Male 1st Dan Pattern
– Wong Jian Yang (21 years old)
6) Gold Medal for Individual Male 15 to 17 years old 2nd Dan Pattern
– Wong Wei Zheng (17 years old)
7) Gold Medal for Individual Female 12 to 14 years old 1st Dan Pattern
– Yong Jin Rou (13 years old)
This was the first time on the world stage for Chen Wei Yang and Wong Wei Zheng, with the latter beating 30 participants to emerge as champion.
However, for us Perakians and Ipoh-ites in particular, Yong Jin Rou from SMJK Ave Maria Convent, Ipoh is particularly notable. As the youngest female athlete to represent Malaysia in the ITF World Cup 2022 and the only female gold medalist from Malaysia, the petite Jin Rou packs amazing strength and power that belies her diminutive size, as she managed to beat 56 opponents in her category from 22 countries. A great achievement for Malaysia from this young wonder.
The team was tirelessly trained by Master Yong kin Choong, who has 32 years of training experience, since October 2021.The above athletes had undergone a 12 weeks personalised training regime with Movement Solutions, whereby their training was divided into 3 stages.
They had been put through a series of assessments to determine their strengths, weaknesses and to address any pains they may have been suffering from. After which, they went through strict performance enhancement training before finally undergoing proper recovery prior to competing against opponents from all over the world.
For nutrition, the Taekwon-Do National level athletes were also sponsored by Hutan Ratio, who provided foods like protein bars and recovery balls to sustain the athletes during competition.
Information provided by Yasmin Lee, co-founder of Fitness Rebels Studio.
By KT Leong
