The World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships was successfully held from 21-24 April 2022 in Goyang Korea. Over 2000 athletes from 70 countries participated in the beautiful city of Goyang.
The Singapore Team, in spite of a two-years hiatus performed admirably at the world stage. The Junior Male Team, comprising of Aloysius Yeo, Ranen Fong and Nicholas Khaw, put up a brilliant performance to reach the Finals and eventually achieved a 5th placing in the Finals with a fearless performance. Nicholas Khaw also participated in the Junior Male Individual event and cleared two cut-off rounds to reach the finals where he also achieved a 5th placing. The Junior Female Team, comprising of Amelia Tan, Germaine Loi and Louise Ng and Junior Female Individual athlete but were shy of reaching the next round. Germaine Loi, in her Junior Female individual event and with Ranen Fong in the Junior Pair event also did admirably to clear their preliminary rounds but closely missed the cut for the finals.
Our senior athletes also performed well in their categories. Brandon Low and Diyanah Aqidah Binte Mhammad Dian Khudhairi performed well in their individual categories against strong opponents. The U30 Female Team, comprising of Diyanah Aqidah, Megan Chin and Tan Wei Jia also did well in their semi-finals but missed the cut for the finals. The U30 Male Team, comprising of Brandon Low, Darren Yap and Dixon Ho did very well in their semi-finals, but only missed the cut by 1 placing for the finals as their presentation scores were slightly lower even though they had the same total score.
Besides recognized Poomsae events, the Singapore team also participated in the freestyle event. Darren Yap participated in the Over 17 Male Individual category and performed brilliantly in the semi-finals by placing 8th in a strong field of 23 participants to reach the finals. He eventually improved on his placing to by one and was 7th in the finals.
The championship was not only participated by our young athletes. Sister Linda Sim won the gold medal in the Recognized Individual Female Over 65 category despite facing stiff competition. This is a fantastic result for the high kicking nun, and a tribute to the longevity that Taekwondo instils. This is Singapore’s first gold medal in a World Championship and the Federation is extremely proud of Sister Linda Sim for her stellar accomplishment Sister Linda embodies the tenets and values of Taekwondo and has been an inspiration to the global community.
The Federation will like to congratulate Sister Linda Sim and the other athletes for giving their best at the world stage. While the last few years has its fill of challenges, the Federation had worked quietly to improve on our governance and high performance. Under the guidance of the Interim Management Committee, the Board, the High Performance Committee, and Coaches Ms. Lee Na Lee and Mr. Lee Jun Seong, our athletes have delivered results exceeding expectations. We believe that this is only the beginning of a brighter future for Singapore Taekwondo.
Lastly, The Federation would also like to thank our sponsor, K & G Marketing for sponsoring the team attire and competition attire for this competition.