The Canadian Team in Manchester. Nice jackets. (Photo by Dr. Terry DeFreitas)
The road to Beijing is a long one, but four of Canada’s Taekwondo athletes are well on their way. Jocelyn Addison, Ivett Gonda, Sebastién Michaud, and Karine Sergerie (pictured below) arrived in Manchester England and are set for one of the most important battles of their careers.
The Manchester Qualifier is one of five continental qualification games for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. If they win (place in the top three in their division), they secure Canada a spot for that division at the Olympics. If they fail, they could end up only watching the games on TV with the rest of us.
But with 350 top players from over 100 countries, winning will not be easy. All eyes are on Sergerie (Female 57-67 kg division) who recently became the first Canadian to win the Taekwondo World Championships and is currently the highest-ranked Canadian player. Gonda (-49 kg) participated in the 2004 Olympics, and most recently won bronze at the Pan American Games. Addison placed first at the 2007 Pan American Taekwondo Championships, and Michaud placed third at the 2007 World Championships.
Each country can send two male and two female players to the Olympic Qualifiers, which run September 28-30. Canada selected their team based on current ranking points.
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