MIDDLE REGION—Thirteen year old Jeu-Viensley Gerardus, nine year old, Mathew Persaud and seven year old Maxim Persaud each earned two gold medals each at the 24th Puerto Rico International Open Tae kwon do Championship.
The trio were part of the 15 athletes from the King Yen Tae kwon do School, under the direction of Grand Master Theo Liu that represented St. Maarten at the weekend competition.
The team returned home with 14 gold, seven silver and three bronze medals. St. Maarten also received a trophy as sub champion Best Team International. Dominican Republic was named Number one International team.
“I am very proud of our athletes,” said the Grand master. “We normally win best International but with airline problems we travelled with a lot smaller group so our medal count was low.”
The team competed in both sparring and the display of forms or practice patterns they show case both offensive and defensive moves.
Winning Gold in sparring were Ronaldo Candia – Williams, Keith Gittens, Mahaila Artiles Gadishaw, Xavier Aventurin and Leomar Dolphin. In addition to the gold Aventurin earned silver in patterns and Dolphin took bronze.
Destiny Washington earned silver in both sparring and forms while Kimberly Sabajo and Kiara Williams earned gold in forms and silver in sparring.
Tyrone Washington and Owen Christian both earned silver in sparing and Lee-Ann Liu won gold in forms.
Earl Ryan earned bronze medals in both sparring and forms.
A total of 380 athletes competed in the tournament. The group represented Mexico, US Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, St. Maarten and host Puerto Rico.
“The athletes learned a lot. Especially about the changes in the international rules and scoring of points. This time the athletes improve a lot that was noticed by the organizers.”
Grand Master Liu continued, “First timers Keith Gittens, Jeu Viensley Gerardus, Kimberley Sabajo did very well and won the first place, gold medal.” He continued, “Brothers Maxim and Mathew Persaud both won Gold in Forms as well in Sparring.”
The trip was made possible by NAGICO Insurances N.V., Euro Caribbean Linkup N.V., Oriental Caribbean Insurances (OCI), Nicherei Carib Corp. Guardian Group – Fatum N.V, Seven Seas Water (Sint Maarten)-, Intermar, Gulf Insurance Ltd, and Robbie’s Lotteries,
