A bronze medal-winning taekwondo star from Ardeer can be a “symbol of empowerment for young girls”, a proud local instructor says.
Linh Khong, a product of ITDF Sunshine, a small club that runs out of a hall at Sunshine College, represented Australia at the International Taekwon-Do Federation World Championships in Italy early last month.
Khong, 15, won bronze in sparring – the first junior from Australia to achieve such a result – and placed in the top eight in Patterns, beating a hundred competitors in each.
Khong, who began training at ITDF Sunshine at age seven and is a first dan in black belt, was surprised to learn she was a “world class athlete”.
“I wasn’t expecting to win anything,” she said. “Each division had a competitor for each country, with about 900 people competing overall – my chances of taking a medal was honestly not considered.
“I was only hoping to perform competitively … to win bronze was unbelievable and something I will cherish forever.”
Club instructor Declan Sega said Khong’s achievement was something very special for Australian taekwondo.
“She is amazing at what she does and is a very humble person,” he said. “It would be brilliant if she could be a symbol of empowerment for young girls.”
The club’s head instructor, Master Danny Kordanovski, was the head coach of the Australian team.
