Saturday 11th December was the BIG day for 12 DAM athletes as well as many more hailing from different clubs and countries: The 2021 Malta national open organised by the Malta Taekwondo Association!
5 Peewees, 1 Cadet and 6 Juniors/Seniors made up our squad at the event, assisted by coaches Mauro and Luke, with 6 of these participants going home with a hard earned medal! The following athletes won their respective category:
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- Dimitar Zlatev
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- Noah Kitcher Deguara
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- Samuel Vella
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- Shania & Kylie Magro
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- Jerome Vassallo
All 12 fighters showed spirit and promise, with Zac Kitcher Deguara and Dimitar Zlatev ending up against each other in the final of their respective category which ended with honours for Dimitar, and Giacomo Falzon on the course of winning his fight before having to withdraw the fight! That fight may be written down as a loss, but we know he won a bigger personal battle now!
Monique Farrugia’s fight was an entertaining one, where she had the upper hand for literally all the seconds but the last 5, despite having lost one of her contact lenses at the beginning of the fight! Very close, but that is the beauty of the game: sometimes it falls your way, and sometimes it falls the other!
Jiri Dlask as well as Aretina fell short of performing at their best on the day while Nathan Degiorgio was overcome by a very tough Estonian opponent, which means that we know the potential is there – we just need to get it out!
Kylie, Shania and Jerome performed at their usual best as they won their fights convincingly while Samuel Vella and Noah Kitcher Deguara gave it their all in their fights and went away with a medal!
Considering this experience was the first of its kind for all the peewees and two of our seniors, we are really proud of all the team and can’t wait to get back to work!
Apart from the athletes and coaches we also had Emvin Mifsud helping out the referees at the IV table (Instant Video) which proved to be very useful as it always is in the sport!
All in all it was a successful event for everyone and we thank the MTA for their hard work in setting it up.
And finally… Big congratulations to Kylie Magro for earning the Most Dedicated Athlete award by the MTA for the past year! We can definitely vouch for that. Well done Kylie!
On to the next one!