Trying to duplicate the success of 2023, the Cayman Islands Taekwondo Academy has already lined up three back-to-back tournaments to kick-start the year.
Ronald Simpson, founder of the academy, told the Compass that his athletes are currently preparing for international events, beginning with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) taekwondo invitational tournament in the coming weeks.
“We’ve been invited to three competitions overseas,” he said, in Argentina, in Florida and in Michigan, which is “a very large AAU tournament… in March and we are trying to get prepared for all of them”.
Their busy schedule comes on the heels of his students exceeding expectations during the Chicago Open Internationals where they earned 36 medals, despite having a small contingent.
“In Chicago, we had one of the smallest teams there and in the overall medal count, we came fifth out of 30 teams,” Simpson said.
A level up
Now, as he prepares another small team to travel to Michigan next month, Simpson is hopeful that his athletes will produce similar results.
“The AAU is a very high-level tournament, so we are planning on sending four or five of our more advanced students because it will be a very tough competition; we’ve never been to that level before,” he said.
While doing well in Michigan is Simpson’s short-term goal, he aspires to take Cayman’s first taekwondo squad to an Olympics, though he acknowledges that will take some time.
“We don’t have anyone old enough right now,” he said. At this point, his son Dylan, 15, holds an advanced belt, he wouldn’t be able to qualify until is over 16.
Dylan “will definitely be ready for the Olympics; once we get the exposure and the support from government and the federation, we can really take him to the next level,” he added.
“Apart from Dylan, we have three other students following very close behind him. So, we are looking at about four Caymanian students that are really shaping up and it won’t be this Olympics… but we’ll have athletes ready to compete at the next one.”
Related Videos
