FLORIDA—Two St. Maarten Tae kwon do athletes made their television debut on ESPN. The pair were part of the St. Maarten team competing in the 2015 International Martial Art Festival at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando Florida.
Team St. Maarten led by Grandmaster Theo Liu from his King Yen Tae kwon do School won 19 gold medals, 14 silver and 14 bronze.
Representing the Island on camera were Destiny Washington (13) and Tyrell Pantophlet (17.) A total of 419 athletes competed in the tournament. Countries represented included Aruba, Dominican Republic, Columbia, Canada, Puerto Rico, United States. The Tae kwon do athletes competed in three events, break test, forms and sparring.
Washington earned silver medals in all three events. Pantophlet took gold in forms, silver in both sparring and breaking and won a bronze medal in forms.
“We have made history again by bringing a St. Maarten team to participate at the ESPN World Wide Sports Center,” said Grandmaster Liu. “In this festival there were competitions in various martial arts such as Karate, Kempo, Traditional Tae kwon Do, Weapons etc.”
St. Maarten participate in Olympic Style Tae Kwon Do,
“Immediately after the competition on Saturday, October 10, a live broad cast of the different Martial Arts disciplines was sent out on ESPN3.” Liu continued, “In the Olympic style Tae Kwon Do team our SXM Tae Kwon Do students Destiny Washington (12) and Tyrell Pantophlet (17) were selected together with one athlete from Aruba in a demo match against 3 members of the USA Olympic Taekwondo team.”
“Our students were selected seeing their extremely good performance earlier,” said Liu.
Team St. Maarten consisted of 15 youth athletes ranging in age from 7 to 17 and one adult.
Winning three gold medals were Anna - Lynn Hypolite and Kharmian Boasman. Hypolite also won a bronze medal in forms.
Two gold medals were captured by Ivyanne Louisa and Tyrell Richardson. Both also took bronze in forms. Jaedon Serant and Beatrice Detroy also won a pair of gold.
Earning one gold medal were Tyrone Washington who also earned silver in forms and bronze in breaking; Miquel de Weever also had silver in breaking and bronze in forms; Kiara Juliana took gold in breaking and silver and bronze in sparring and Earl Ryan added two bronze medals to his one gold.
Destiny Washington took silver in all three of her events. Gimora Calmero, Andres Patrick and Joey Narducci all earned two silver and one bronze medal while 8 year old Jayden Harriott earned bronze in breaking and sparring.
Making the trip posable were sponsors NAGICO Insurances N.V., Euro Caribbean Linkup N.V., Oriental Caribbean Insurances (OCI), Pine Apple Pete N.V., Gulf Insurances, Guardian Group – Fatum N.V., Intermar, Robby’s Lottery, F.W. Vlaun, ENNIA Insurances N.V. and Labor Xperts,
