MIDDLE REGION--St. Maarten was honoured as Best International Team at the 2017 Aruba Open International Taekwondo Competition. Team St. Maarten under the guidance of Grandmaster Theo Liu returned from to the Friendly Island with 27 individual medals and two trophies.
The team from the King Yen School in Middle Region earned seven golds, 14 silver and six bronze medals.
Eight year old Maalik Richardson was named Best International Infantil Male Fighter and the team beat out eight other countries to earn best International team.
“It is quite an honour to be named Best Team,” explained the grandmaster. “We are going up against much larger countries.”
The countries represented included, Columbia, Curacao, Jamaica, Mexico, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago, USA Venezuela, and host Aruba.
A total of 189 athletes participated in the Open using the Olympic style electronic computer scoring.
“We made St. Maarten proud again and very well known in the International Taekwondo World,” said the Grandmaster. He continued, “The athletes learned a lot again especially about the changes in the international rules and scoring of points.
The athletes participated in both open sparring and pater display. Alian Flanders won gold in both,
Winning gold in sparring were Mahelia Artiles and Maalik Richardson. Both also earned silver in patterns.
Earning gold in patterns and silver in sparring were Kimberly Sabajo, Suleyka Tjon Tam Pau and Antoine Scott-Sanon.
Sixteen year old Tyrell Richardson earned two silver in sparring and a silver in patterns.
Earning silver in both sparring and patterns were Geisha-Lee Rosalia, Rheysa Tjon Tam Pau and Ethan Itwar.
Several parents traveled with the team as did Paulien Vuijst who serves as team therapist and the International team coordinator.
Making the trip posable were NAGICO, Euro Caribbean Linkup N.V., Oriental Caribbean Insurances (OCI), Guardian Group – Fatum N.V, Seven Seas Water (Sint Maarten) Soggy Dolly Bar, Intermar and Nicherei Carib Corp.
