Canadian Gold and Silver for Taekwondo Duo
Amy Truesdale former Para World Taekwondo Champion took her first step to compete in the 2020 Japan Olympics by securing a silver medal podium place and ranking points in the Canadian Open Para Taekwondo G1 seeding event in Montreal Canada.
Travelling with her coach Master Peter Johnson, who also competed himself in the +61 years division in the forms section, completed a great streak of wins for the Stoke UTA Team.
The competition was held at the Complexe Sportif Claude Robilliard Stadium in downtown Montreal and was one of the biggest to date with over eight hundred competitors competing over three days from all over the world. And to add to the long journey Amy and Pete had to make it was one of the coldest on record with temperatures below -30 degrees forecast for the weekend! There were times we did not dare go outside; warnings on the television broadcast of the risk of severe frostbite so we did a lot of preparation for the competition within the hotel and its gymnasium.
Amy went through to the final against France Para fighter Laura Schiel , Amy was by the far the better Technicial and was hitting Laura with every kick possible. It was a draw by the first round, but in the second and third rounds Amy got frustrated at the fact that she was throwing far more kicks but they were not registering on the electronic body protectors and lost at least two points on deductions for kicking low. This took the final score 4-1 to the French girl whose defence was hard to get through. Coach Peter Johnson was disappointed as Amy clearly outclassed her opponent but nothing was scoring commenting: “We need to go back and work on more power and analyse the match; but on the plus side we achieved ranking points and have some positives to work on.”
Coach Johnson also went through to the final in the forms section and took gold in a solid performance beating Canadians Sean Hayes and Hans Mecking to take the top podium spot. He said: “I was pleased with my performance and the hard training had paid off this year. My recent win in Lille France had given me a boost and made me more confident on the mat. It would have been great if Amy could have completed the set of golds but I think sometimes we set the bar too high for ourselves and this adds more pressure. Achieving two top podium players with a team of two can’t be bad and we have learned a lot from this experience.”
This makes two International wins for Johnson already in 2016 and with the London International forms in two weeks’ time at the K2 Centre Gatwick, the pressure remains on to deliver. Amy’s target is the Para European Championships later on in the year in Warsaw, Poland so we have lots to work on still but ultimately it’s the Worlds for Johnson in Peru this year and Japan 2020 for Truesdale.
Peter Johnson
GB Para Taekwondo Coach
T: 01782 281906
E: Peter.tkd.uta@btinternet,com