Nhan Hoang, John Flores, Hoa Le, Phillip Le and Phillip Chien will represent Australia at the World Taekwondo Championships. 66829_05
By Liam Twomey
FIVE taekwondo students from Melbourne’s Western Suburbs are preparing for one of the hardest challenges in world sport.
Phillip and Hoa Le, who are brother and sister from Sunshine North, will be joined by Phillip Chien from Sunshine, John Flores from Deer Park and Nhan Hoang from Yarraville at the ITF World Taekwondo Championships, which will take place in North Korea.
Danny Kordanovski is the head coach for the Australian taekwondo team and the chief instructor at the International Taekwon-Do Defence Force, in Sunshine, where the five students practise. Kordanovski has previously had some of his student qualify for the world championships but never as many as five.
“I was blown away, to get five from the state is a special effort, but to get five from one club is mind blowing.”
Kordanovski is particularly impressed with his brother and sister combination. Phillip will compete in four events while Hoa, will compete in three.
“To have a brother and sister competing at such as high level in the exact some event is really a special achievement.”
Only one competitor from each country can compete in each weight division of each event making qualification in itself an outstanding achievement.
In total 15 taekwondo athletes from Australia will compete at the championships. They leave Australia in early December.
