Australia dominates Pacific Games Taekwondo

By Ivamere Nataro 18 July 2019, 12:00PM

Australia dominated the two-day taekwondo competition at the Harvest Center in Lotopa. 

On Tuesday the team had a clean sweep in the men’s division claiming gold in all the categories, and yesterday in the women’s division as well. 

Australia’s Taekwondo Head Coach, Ali Khalil said the team’s desire is to continually improve.

“They’ve got ambitions, they want to be really competitive in the international circuit, they have high ambitions and they aim really high,” said Alia on what pushes the team to succeed. 

“We are part of the Oceana Union and the Pacific Games offer a lot of ranking points, which is very important for our sport, for a lot of athletes.”

He said the Pacific Games gives them the opportunity to compete with other Oceana countries.  

“It provides us with the opportunity to compete against other Oceana countries, which is great, and it’s great experience for us, and it’s great experience for all other nations that are here.” 

Ali, who has been the national coach of Australia since 2010, said the team did well in the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, and so far we have dominated taekwondo. 

“This is my second Pacific Games. We did really well in 2015, we are doing really well now, we can’t tell until the day is finished,” he said. 

“We pulled nine gold medals if I remember clearly (in 2015). We are contesting about 10 or 12 divisions today (yesterday). We have eight females and 10 males, and they are competing in all the categories.”

Australia will participate in the Oceana competition this week, and will contest in all the divisions.

By Ivamere Nataro 18 July 2019, 12:00PM

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