ST. PETERS--St. Maarten will be represented at the 26th Puerto Rico International Taekwondo Open Championship by the King Yen Taekwondo School under the guidance of Grandmaster Theo Liu.
Team St. Maarten will include one black belt. One red, one blue. one yellow and seven white belts. The athletes will compete in forms and or sparring.
Lee-Ann Liu is the senior team member and will be sporting a second dan black belt. Shekinah
Carbon will be wearing a red belt followed by Vanuye Beeldsnijder with a blue belt and Jacquelle Johnston in yellow. Wearing the white belt, the first colour a new student receives are Kendrys
Fuentes, Rique-Lee Rosalia – Liu, Gheisha-Lee Rosalia – Liu, Luisa Perez Veras, Shailen James, Key-Mari Richardson and Henri Seferina.
Nearly 300 athletes from Dominican Republic, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, United States, host Puerto Rico and St. Maarten are expected to compete March 17.
Team St. Maarten is scheduled to depart on Friday and return Monday. The team will travel with Grandmaster Lui, two other team officials and seven parents.
“We want to give our St. Maarten students athletes the great opportunity to acquire international experience in a one of kind event where only the best athletes meet,” said the grandmaster. “This is a once in a life time opportunity and will serve as an unforgettable and tremendous experience for them.”
Grandmaster Liu always includes beginners in his traveling teams. As a result, the King Yen school was awarded a Brown Pelican as Best Overall Team. At many of the competitions, St. Maarten is named as Best International Team.
