Our Team TAYA Developing Black Belt Juniors and Cadets competed at this event held at the Whitlam Leisure Centre on 30 May 2026 and earned National Ranking points in their divisions. The event had a round robin competition format where the 4 semi-finalists fought to win the top spot. Our athletes have fought hard showing their resilience, growing skills and confidence with some tough competition against current and past Australian National Team members. Team TAYA’s results are as follows:
Gold – Aarav Menezes, Cadet -37kg
Bronze – Aarav Kadam, Junior -55kg
Bronze – Kiaan Para, Junior -45kg
Bronze – Lachlan MacGowan, Cadet -45kg
Bronze – Danica De Leon, Cadet -55kg
A fantastic preparation for the upcoming World Taekwondo Oceania President’s Cup and Australian Open to be held at the Gold Coast from 18-21 June 2026.
WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
12-17 April 2026
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Coach Abby Sangalang and our 3 Team TAYA athletes Chelsea Gomez, Ayva Soteriou, Diego Querubin have returned with the Australian Team from a wonderful experience at the World Junior Championships which run for 6 days from 12-17 April 2026 at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was so wonderful seeing them fight the world’s best athletes and proudly represented Australia at the World Championships.
We are also very happy and proud of our High Performance Coach and Instructor Ms Abby Sangalang for her valuable contribution as Australian National Team Coach for the 6th time at a World Championships guiding and supporting the Australian Team.
Our Team TAYA’s results were as follows:
Diego Querubin -48kg fought in Day 2
Round of 32 – Lost vs Brazil in straight sets Set 1: 7-12, Set 2: 3-7
Chelsea Gomez -44kg fought in Day 4
Round of 32 – Won vs Ecuador in straight sets Set 1: 2-0, Set 2: 5-0
Round of R16 – Lost vs Kazakhstan winning Set 1: 3-2, and losing Set 2: 0-4, Set 3: 3-7 to eventual Gold Medal Winner/World Champion who was awarded the Most Valuable Female Athlete of the World Junior Championships
Ayva Soteriou -52kg fought in Day 6
Round of 64 – Won vs El Salvador in straight sets Set 1: 11-9, Set 2: 16-4 won in Point Gap with an amazing spinning hook kick to the head
Round of 32 – Won vs Egypt in straight sets Set 1: 20-13 initially trailed behind by 10 points but recovered to win the set, Set 2: 9-9 won by superiority
Round of 16 – Lost to Croatia in straight sets Set 1: 9-17, Set 2: 4-7 who was the eventual Bronze Medallist
We commend Ayva, Chelsea, Diego for all their hard work and commitment at training over the past several months returning from a recent Europe Tour and competed at 3 events as part of their preparation for this prestigious event. We are very proud of their efforts, courage, resilience and determination to perform well and fight to the best of their abilities.
Every loss was hard to swallow and very painful but what is important is how our athletes recover, rebuild their inner strength, bounce back to study all facets of their game, court management, learn from past errors and correct them with close guidance from the coaches and support of their parents.
We all share the same dreams and goals and will continue to pursue our taekwondo journey and apply what they learned from the World Junior Championships.
They have enjoyed this wonderful experience, the sights, culinary and cultural diversity of Uzbekistan and honoured to have fought for Australia.
For now, they will rest and reset for another chapter with our athletes ready to go back to training, rejoin the team over the next few days and together tackle upcoming challenges ahead.
Well done Ayva, Chelsea, Diego and Coach Abby!!!
Our TEAM TAYA Athletes joined a large Australian Team contingent as part of the Europe Tour of the Australian Taekwondo Performance Pathway Program for the Fighting Futures Squad covering a period of two weeks from 11-24 March 2026 competing at the Dutch Open and Belgium Open.
Our Senior Instructor and High Performance Coach Ms Abby Sangalang was appointed as one of the Coaches for this Fighting Futures Europe Tour. Ms Abby has been part of the Coaching Staff for all the Australian PPP/FF Teams in previous Europe (2023), North American (2024) and Korea (2025) Tours over the last 4 years in her role as NSW PPP Coach which she has held since 2021.
The following week after competing at the 2026 Dutch Open, our TEAM TAYA high performance athletes continued their journey at the 2026 Belgium Open held at the Arena De Soeverein, Sportveldenstraat in Lommel. The two-day event saw the best athletes across Europe and visiting athletes from Asia, North America and Australia compete at the highest level.
TEAM TAYA'S Results were as follows:
We are very proud of TEAM TAYA's results and growing confidence, maturity and dedication towards sporting excellence.
It was great to see Mia and Vasili achieve remarkable results at the Belgium Open after only transitioning into Juniors at the start of the year.
Participation at the Dutch Open and Belgium Open have also assisted our Juniors Chelsea, Ayva and Diego in their preparations for the upcoming World Junior Championships to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 12-17 April 2026 and the Oceania Championships from 28-29 March 2026 in Sydney, Australia where Sofia and Chelsea will fight as part of the Australian Senior National Team and Diego, Vasili, Mia have qualified to compete in the Juniors Categories.
This experience will help them on their continuing development as high performance athletes, providing them valuable court time and insights into competing at a high level.
