Out in force: Stakes were high at a Shepparton-hosted Victorian taekwondo meet.
Shepparton’s Koryo Taekwondo continues to go from strength to strength after hosting a statewide meet at the weekend.
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More than 150 practitioners from across Victoria converged on the Goulburn Valley dojo to compete at the facility operated by head coach Sammy Rachele.
Fresh off a swathe of successes at last month’s national championships, Rachele and his disciples were again ready to compete with Victoria’s best.
The event attracted some notable figures, with City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali in attendance for the ceremonies.
Rachele lauded the event’s rousing success on and off the mats.
“We hold an annual competition here in memory of Bev Walker, one of our late students, and we’ve been doing that since she passed in 2005,” Rachele said.
“The Koryo schools at Mooroopna, Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park and Wallan were all there as well, with a handful of other schools from Melbourne.
“It’s probably the biggest turnout we’ve ever had and hopefully in the future we can do much more.”
The schools competed on two fronts: technical demonstrations, which involved events like measuring high jump kicks “for a bit of fun”, and full-contact fighting under Olympic rules.
And much as the recent nationals shone a favourable light on the Shepparton school, with trainer and students alike collecting medals and placings, Sunday’s meet resulted in more of the same.
“Young Darcy Jackson ended up with two silver medals and Damon Vasterink picked up another gold,” Rachele said.
“We also had young Josh Kennedy win gold in his fighting category.”
With two prolific medal hauls for Shepparton Koryo in the space of a month, it’s only natural to cast one’s eyes to bigger prizes ahead.
Rachele sees the opportunity for major expansion — figuratively and literally — to try and attract an international meet to the Goulburn Valley.
High-level talks: Koryo head coach Sammy Rachele, Grandmaster Russell Wood, World Taekwondo Para committee member Linda Pace and Mayor Shane Sali have ambitions to host bigger things.
“(World Taekwondo Para committee member) Linda Pace was helping judges get certified on the Saturday and was judging herself on the Sunday and she helped judge the world titles in Mexico this year,” Rachele said.
“We won gold together in India in 2011 and she sat down with Shane Sali on the day of this meet and talked about running an international event here in Shepparton.
“I’ve got a planning permit and I’m awaiting clearance for an extension on the building.
“I think we would get triple the turnout if we ran that kind of event.
“It would be great for the town. Shepparton is a great town for martial arts.”
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