By Michael Esposito
THE western suburbs seem to be producing young martial arts champions with extraordinary regularity.
Since Thomas Olsen was named as a finalist in the Don Deeble Rising Star Award in June, stories of champion junior martial arts practitioners – particularly in the discipline of taekwondo – have emerged by the bucket load.
Included among the West’s promising talents are Sunshine boys Reece Mayne and Joshua Micallef. Both won gold medals at the World Championships in power breaking. Mayne, 16, broke an amazing six boards (12cm thick in total), with a side kick.
Dilan Ismail is a particularly noteworthy success story. The Hoppers Crossing resident has been a stand-out talent since taking up the sport eight years ago. The 13-year-old rarely loses a fight and will attempt to back up his gold medal-winning performance at the recent Victorian Taekwondo Championships at the nationals in October.
The State Championships was the first major tournament Ismail competed as a black belt, fighting against fellow black belts, and won all four fights in his 40-45kg weight division. His performance earned him a spot on the state team as the number one ranked fighter in his age group.
His instructor Frank De Pasquale said Ismail had an almost impeccable fighting record.
“He’s often having 14 or 15 fights a year and maybe dropping one fight a year, or not losing a fight at all,” De Pasquale said.
“In his age group, he’s one of the best kids in the country, and he has been for the last couple of years.”
De Pasquale said Ismail trains hard but not as obsessively as some other competitors in his age group.
“A lot of people he fights train six days a week, because people are keen and they have to get the rewards ASAP, but the kids are 13, it’s not sheep stations, it’s not the world championships.
“In a couple of years’ time, if he keeps going like he’s going, he will start training much more frequently and the stages will get bigger. He’s a long-term project. We don’t want them working flat-out … because you burn them out.”
Ismail is quietly confident about his chances at the nationals.
“It’s going to be a challenge for me, but if I train every week hard I think I have a good chance of taking out the national championship,” he said.
“I want to go overseas and compete in those tournaments and maybe try to qualify for the Olympics.”
Ismail said his recent promotion to black belt dealt the challenges he needed to improve himself.
“When I was red belt, it was at the stage where it was really easy because I fought for a long time in red belt.”
Taekwondo is not Ismail’s only passion – he is also a very keen performing artist, and will soon hit the Altona Civic Theatre Stage as Lefou in Beauty and the Beast.
Williamstown High School student Luke Zahra will also compete at the national championships after his gold medal-winning performance at the Victorian selections.
The 14-year-old black belt trains at the Taekwondo Academy in Laverton under head instructor Alan Malachowski, whose nine-year-old son Lachlan was featured in the Star recently for winning a gold medal in sparring at the Taekwondo Culture Expo in Korea.
Zahra, who also competed at the expo, is a second dan black belt who has been fighting for four years.
He’s a beginner compared to 20-year-old St Albans resident Jessica Moro, who will be travelling to Uzbekistan on 5 October for the World Poomsae Taekwondo Championships.
Moro has been doing taekwondo for 13 years, and has had numerous notable achievements this year, including a first place at the world cup sections and a first place at the Oceania Championships.
The Victorian A squad member is also a two-time national champion and current Victorian champion.
