Our Team TAYA Athletes have commenced their 2025 season starting the year attending the following training camps/sessions:
Cadet Kiera Malicdem - travelled to Thailand and trained with Master Khem Taweesilp at the Taweesilp Training Dojang. Master Khem is a renowned coach who have developed national team members in Thailand, World Juniors Champions and Medalists, Asian Junior Champions and Medalists and Olympians and runs international training camps in various countries like Sweden, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia (for the last two years).
Taweesilp Training Camp - Our friends at Martial Arts Spirit have hosted a 5 day (day and night) training camp at their dojang at Prestons attended by our Team TAYA Athletes led by Junior Chelsea Gomez and Cadets Mia Er, Joshua Harb, Aarav Menezes, Danica De Leon, Kiaan Para and Heleni Moa.
Junior Chelsea Gomez also trained with the De La Salle University Team in Manila, Philippines under Coaches Roberto Cruz and Elaine Arora. Roberto "Kitoy" Cruz is an Olympian (2000 Sydney), 3x Silver Medalist World Championships, Asian Champion, Southeast Asian Champion, National Team Coach. Elaine Arora is also an Olympian (2016 Rio de Janeiro), a multiple Southeast Asian Champion and medalists in two Asian Championships and National Team Coach.
Team TAYA Summer Training - Two start-up training sessions were held to prepare the athletes for what will be a busy competition season in 2025.
Its great to see our Team TAYA Athletes showing initiative, commitment, drive to keep learning and improving. They all had fun learning and adapting to the challenges, techniques, drills and training with other athletes across Australia, Thailand and Philippines.
TAYA TAEKWONDO
2024 Recap of Key Performance Highlights
TAYA TAEKWONDO LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
The TAYA TAEKWONDO Leadership Program which is part of our Black Belt Journey is providing significant benefits in personality development, character building, developing mentoring and leadership skills, increasing confidence, discipline, resilience, gaining maturity, patience, sense of responsibility, diligence and assists in setting the Leadership Team up to do well at school, other extracurricular activities and in life in general
TEAM TAYA ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
The competition results are backed up by our successful Advanced and Grassroots Development Programs for our Team TAYA Athletes and all year-long continuous training including the Sports Clinics providing intensive training held mostly in school holidays as preparations for big competitions
2025 will be another big year to compete at two AUS National Selections for Cadet and Senior World Championships (Cadets on March 9 and Seniors on May 31), Korea Open, Oceania President’s Cup and Australian Open G2/G3 events, Australian National Championships, NSW State Selections, NSW International Open, interclub/interstate competitions and participate in an international and local training camps will be the key events in 2025
Refer to our Events Calendar
Team TAYA travelled to Brisbane QLD and collectively brought home a total of 16 medals = 7 Golds, 6 Silvers and 3 Bronzes from the competition last 9-10 November 2024 at South Pine Sports Complex, Brendale. Despite the very uncomfortable conditions at the venue with no airconditioning in the main competition and marshalling areas combined with extreme heat and high humidity, Team TAYA has remained steadfast and focussed on achieving strong performances with some losing in closely contested matches but still attaining a personal best. Our athletes have risen to challenges, shown technical and tactical prowess and have learned a lot from the experience. It is also inspiring to see our first timers at the Nationals who have fought hard and performed well.
Overall, a fantastic team result at the Nationals with Team TAYA achieving a top 5th overall finish in the club leaderboard tally from 93 clubs across Australia who competed at the event. A consistent top 5 result for the second year in a row!
Thank you to our Athletes for your hard work and perseverance, to our Coaches for your guidance and brilliant coaching, to our Black Belts for your assistance at warm up and to our Parents & Families for your encouragement and support. It was wonderful to see everyone having fun, adopting a positive growth mindset, cheering and supporting each other.
This Nationals marked our last competition for 2024. We look forward to another busy competition season in 2025 with many local, state, national and international events lined up.
Congratulations Team TAYA and well done on your excellent results, collective efforts and fantastic teamwork.
The World Junior Championships held at Chuncheon, South Korea for 6 days from 1 to 6 October 2024 has brought historic achievements and beautiful moments and considered the largest WJC competition with over 123 countries who competed at the event.
Our two Team TAYA Athletes Chelsea Gomez -44kg and Ayva Soteriou -46kg both reached Round of 16 in their respective division and lost to eventual Gold Medallists but gained valuable insights, lessons and experiences which will assist in improving their game.
Ayva – debuted at her first World Championships and showed grit and passion, fought in day 2 first against Kyrgyzstan and won Round of 32 match in 2-1 and then against Korea in Round of 16 losing in straight sets who ended up as World Champion and awarded Most Valuable Female Athlete of the World Championships.
Chelsea – was on her 3rd World Championships with her first two experiences as a cadet, fought in day 4 first against France and won Round of 32 match in 2-1 and then in Round 16 against Chinese Taipeh in straight sets who also ended up as the World Champion.
The girls coached by Ms Abby fought hard and strong and felt privileged to match up against dominant, technical, tactical and world class opponents and lost to the eventual Gold Medallists. They were very inspired and have learned so much from the experience competing at the World Junior Championships and will continue to train and work harder to have another opportunity to represent Australia at the next World Junior Championships in 2026.
We are very happy and proud of their efforts, hard work, dedication and will reset and recover to prepare for more Taekwondo journey ahead.
Congratulations to the AUS Team including all athletes, coaches including our very own Ms Abby, and all support staff who worked hard for their fantastic results at the World Junior Championships.