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.
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Our Team TAYA black belt athletes and coaches travelled to Brisbane, QLD and competed at back-to-back G2 international tournaments held at the Nissan Arena. Congratulations to our athletes and coaches for bringing home a tally of 7 medals at the Oceania President’s Cup held on 19-20 September 2024 over hard fought matches against tough opponents:
Aaditya - Seniors -54kg Bronze
Diego - Juniors -45kg Gold
Ayva - Juniors -46kg Silver
Jade - Cadets -44kg Silver
Mia - Cadet -41kg Silver
Ayaan Cadet -37kg Silver
Vasili - Cadets -57kg Silver
Other team members who fought hard but unfortunately lost their opening matches are:
Sofia - Seniors -49kg
Aarav - Cadets -49kg
Lachlan - Cadets -37kg
Thank you to the parents and families for your support and encouragement, to our coaches for your dedication and guidance, to our black belt leadership team for your assistance and contribution and to our athletes for your perseverance and passion - Well done Team TAYA!
It is with pride and joy that we share Australian Taekwondo’s announcement of Ms Abby’s selection as Australian National Coach for the World Junior Championships scheduled on 1-6 October 2024 in Chuncheon, South Korea.
This will be the 4th National Team Coach selection at a World Championships for Ms Abby namely the 2022 Cadets at Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022 Juniors at Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023 Cadets at Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and now 2024 Juniors at Chuncheon, South Korea.
Ms Abby has worked very hard to expand her knowledge and experience over the past several years in her capacity as TAYA TAEKWONDO Coach, Australian Taekwondo Performance Pathway Program (PPP) NSW Coach and Australian National Team Coach in the recent Cadet and World Junior Championships and as PPP Coach for several PPP International Tours. She has been selected as Coach for numerous Australian PPP Team tours to Korea Tour (Korea Open in July 2022 and training camp at Korea National Sport University in April 2024), Europe Tour (Dutch and Belgium Opens in March 2023) and recently in North American Tour (Canada and US Opens in February 2024).
Coach Abby has also completed the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Elevate Coach Course in 2021. The AIS Elevate Coach program is collaborating with leading tertiary institutions to deliver professional development for two focus groups of pathway coaches: one for women coaches; and another for former high performance athletes now focused on coaching. Ms Abby was a National Team Member who also represented Australia at the 2014 World Junior Championships in the -46kg division. Ms Abby was also one of the 3 Performance Coach of the Year Finalists at the Australian Taekwondo National Gala Awards 2022 and is now highly regarded as one of the top high-performance coaches in Australia.
Thank you to Australian Taekwondo for this fantastic recognition of Coach Abby's hard work, dedication and commitment to achieving AUS team excellence. Coach Abby is looking forward to continue working with the Athletes and Coaches and contribute to the AUS Team successes at the World Junior Championships. She will be joined by our two Team TAYA Athletes Chelsea Gomez and Ayva Soteriou who will represent Australia in -44kg and -46 kg divisions, respectively.
