Team St. Maarten Displays the medals they won at the 31st Puerto Rico’s International Open Taekwondo Championship February 24 and 25.
PHILIPSBURG—Team St. Maarten has returned to the Friendly Island with a haul of 15 medals from the 31st Puerto Rico’s International Open Taekwondo Championship. Over the weekend, team St. Maarten faced athletes from Florida and New York, USA; Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, US Virgin Islands and Uruguay. The athletes competed in form display, sparring and break tests. Five athletes represent St. Maarten. The youngest was white belt Dylon Collado at age 6. He earned a silver medal in forms and took gold in both sparing and breaking. Derryck Collado, age nine also with a white belt, earned gold in forms and breaking and silver in sparring. Eleven year old Rique-Lee Rosalia-Liu took gold in forms and sparring and silver in breaking. Twelve year old Gunesh Natram, with a yellow belt, earned bronze in forms but went on to get gold in sparring and breaking. Jaldon Gitterson earned gold in forms and sparring. The 13 year old also earned silver in breaking. “We put St. Maarten again on the world map of Taekwondo,” said group leader Grandmaster Theo Liu. In total 376 athletes competed in the Puerto Rico’s International Open Taekwondo Championship. The competition was organized by the Puerto Rico Taekwondo Federation and the Panamerican Taekwondo Union (PATU.) “Everyone was excited to see Team St. Maarten again,” said Liu. “Especially 7 year old Dylon Collado. He got a standing ovation from the public for his indomitable fighting spirit against his Puerto Rico opponent.” He continued, “Our athletes were filmed and the show played on Puerto Rico Television. Besides Grand Master Liu as Chef de Equippe, the St. Maarten delegation included Paulien Vuijst the International Team Organizer and technical coach Jonathan Samuel. The trip was made possible by sponsors ICWI insurance company, AVIS/Budget, Sun Insurance Brokers N.V., Group of companies St. Maarten Shipping & Stevedoring N.V; Bryan Car Rental of Anguilla; St. Maarten Airways; Oriental Caribbean Insurances (OCI), Natram Construction,
