The dust has settled after four days of intense competition, and one team is left standing tall. The team that traveled the farthest to this Pan Am Championship in Argentina also took home the most gold, and a number of other titles to boot.

Team Canada - 15th Pan Am Championship

Canada not only took more gold, but way more gold: six big ones compared to Brazil and Mexico with three each, and the U.S.A. with two. Along with our four bronze medals, Canada tied with team U.S.A. in total medal count, at ten each.

Women's Team - Photo: Eric Ahn

Men's Team

Overall, our Women’s Team was ranked number one, and our Men’s Team finished third. The star of the Women’s Team was undoubtedly Quebec’s Karine Sergerie, who won all her matches without a single point scored against her, and was presented the event’s Women’s MVP award. While Sergerie and three others (Gonda, Bosshart and Peregoudova) managed a perfect score at the 2006 Canadian Nationals, doing it at a major international competition is a very rare accomplishment.

Two other awards recognized some of the accomplished officials that make these kinds of results possible; Master Raymond Mourad of Montreal was awarded Best Coach, and Master Barbara Marian of Cobourg Ontario was awarded Best Female Referee.

Although Team Canada also scored ten total medals in the last Pan Ams, the solitary gold in 2004 went to Ivett Gonda (Fin), and silver to Eric Ahn (Heavy). This year’s results are in fact the best we’ve seen in 16 years, since the 7th Pan American Championships in 1990. At that time our Men’s team placed first overall and our Women’s third, with a total of 4 gold medals.

» Full Results – 15th Pan Am Championship

Photos by Woo Kim Langley Tae Kwon Do

Canadian Taekwondo athletes have once again proved their world-class status, this time at the 15^th World Hanmadang Games in Korea held November 1-4.

The Hanmadang tests skills other than sparring, including poomsae (patterns), hoshinsool (self-defense), and kyukpa (breaking). It’s one of the largest and most structured martial art event of its kind, this year attracting 3,400 competitors from over 60 countries.

2006 Canadian Hanmadang Team

The nine-person Canadian team finished 1^st in Senior Men Jumping High Kick, 2^nd in Junior Men Jumping High Kick, 4^th in team Hanmadang, 9^th in Hoshinsool, and 10^th in Creative Poomse. This is the highest result of any non-Korean team, according to Grand Master Jae Park of Winnipeg, who placed first in the Senior High Kick.

Tiana Collins breaks concrete in the men's division

The team also made big news in the Korean media when Ms. Tiana Collins became the first female ever to compete in a men’s power breaking division. Coach Master McLaughlin reports these results come despite having only two weeks of team practice, which began when Master McLaughlin flew to Edmonton to teach his Hanmadang routine to team members at the Grand Master K.H. Min Taekwondo Dojang. Four of McLaughlin’s student’s from Woo Kim Langley Tae Kwon Do in B.C. competed on the team, including Tiana who also fought for team B.C. at the 2006 Senior Nationals.

Sixteen-year-old Derek Graham placed second in Junior High Kick where competitors attempt to break a board with a jumping kick, and if successful move to the next round with a higher board. According to the Winnipeg Sun:

Graham ended up tied with the eventual winner in his division when they both missed their kicks. But instead of the usual tie-breaking formula of giving it to Graham as the shorter competitor, the pair were allowed to continue kicking with the winner breaking the board while Graham did not.

Despite the unexpected decision, Grand Master Jae Park says of his student:

He’s a true competitor. His attitude was, ‘The rules say one thing but my opponent broke it and I didn’t so he won.’ That’s a great attitude to have.

Master McLaughlin attributes the team’s success to the caliber of its athletes and management:

A special thank-you must go out to Grand Master Jong Lee (B.C.), Grand Master Suh (B.C.), Grand Master Min (Alberta) and Grand Master Park (Manitoba) for all of their help. Personally I would like to thank all players for all of their hard work and dedication to Taekwondo and it was an honor to represent Canada at the World Championships with them.

WTF Taekwondo Canada is about to unleash its 2006 Pan Am Team on Argentina. The 15th Pan American Championship runs from November 21 to 26 in the city of Buenos Aires, where most of PATU’s 42 member nations will put their best athletes to the test. Canada’s 16-member team plus coaches and managers will depart early to train together and acclimatize before competition.

The 2006 team earned their spots at the Team Trials this past August in B.C., and contains nine players who also competed at the 2004 Pan Ams in the Dominican Republic.

Female Pan Am Championship Team
Photos by Champion Photos
Yvette Yong (BC) Fin	Ivett Gonda (BC) Fly
Shannon Condie (ON) Bantam	Michelle Ge (BC) Feather
Karine Sergerie (QC) Light	Erin Smibert (ON) Welter
Dasha Peregoudova (ON) Middle	Dominique Bosshart (ON) Heavy

Male Pan Am Championship Team
Maikol Pinto (ON) Fin	Jocelyn Addison (QC) Fly
Ali Ghafour (ON) Bantam	Akmal Farah (ON) Feather
J.F. Lebreux (QC) Light	Sebastien Michaud (QC) Welter
Francois Coulombe -Fortier (QC) Middle	Eric Ahn (ON) Heavy

The 2007 Senior National Championship, originally scheduled for January 13/14 in Toronto, has been postponed until March 3/4.The host city has also been changed to Montreal.

Due to a requirement of the Pan Am Games Organizing Committee and PATU that we must register our team for the Pan Am Games by February 1, 2007 we have been forced to switch the Pan Am Team Trials to Toronto on January 14-15, 2007 and move Senior Nationals to Montreal on March 3-4, 2007….

» Taekwondo Association of Canada