Sister Linda Sim, who has a couple of international medals under her belt, was looking forward to increasing her medal collection at the 8th World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships staged from 31 October to 3 November 2013 in Bali, Indonesia. But it was not to be as nerves got the better of her in the final.
After finishing third in the semi-final round to earn for herself a berth in the final, Sister Linda was eager to improve her position for a better medal color. That was a possibility as she scored a high 7.40 points for her first poomsae. At that point, the highest average score was 7.27 points.
Her supporters were optimistic that she would end up on the podium in the competition which attracted the best of the best, including World Champions – some many times over, in every category.
Sister Linda started off well for her second poomsae, which happened to be her favorite. Midway through her performance, she succumbed to a brief mental block which was possibly caused by the tremendous pressure of her wanting to do well.
Whatever it was, it was enough to result in her undoing. She registered a score of 7.04 points. Her average score for the two poomsae was 7.22 missing out on the bronze medal by 0.02.
Said a disappointed Sister Linda: “I did not know what had happened. If I was nervous, I did not feel it. I was going with the flow of the poomsae. And suddenly, I was lost. I was able to recover quickly but unfortunately I was punished for the temporary lapse. Well, that was part and parcel of the game.”
The other two Singapore representatives were Kang Rui Jie and Chelsea Sim. Both of them acquitted themselves well at the competition. Chelsea won a place in the semi-final after beating 16 performers in the individual category but could not go further. She and Kang teamed up to compete in the team event. The Singapore pair cleared the preliminary stage. In the semi-final, they gave of their best but it was not good enough for them to book a place in the final.