Edson Breedy Academy bags 70 medals

A 70-medal haul helped the Edson Breedy Taekwondo Academy to make a statement recently, when they dominated proceedings at both the inaugural Caribbean Taekwondo Championships and the annual National Championships.

The Caribbean Championships, held at the Lions Club at Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook, pulled in an array of competitors from across the region including St Lucia, St Vincent, Cayman Islands, Martinique as well as the United States.

The Academy, spearheaded by Breedy, a national taekwondo player currently on hiatus, was particularly busy this year, tasting competition success on their overseas debut in May at the Arthy Lie Taekwondo Open, taking four medals from a six-member team.

Two months later, they snatched 17 more medals at the Cheryl-Ann Sankar Inter-Primary School competition, before venturing overseas to San Jose, Costa Rica, to contest the Costa Rica Open, bringing back nine medals from the event.

The competitions served as an ideal build up to the end-of-year schedule, which included presumably the two biggest events on the 2019 calendar for the school – the Caribbean and National Championships.

“There is going to be a Caribbean Taekwondo School Championships on November 9… and that’s the next thing on our trajectory, and probably the

nationals after that,” explained Breedy in September, and the preparation showed on the mat.

On November 9, Breedy’s troops claimed 27 medals and also grabbed three awards on the way to a successful showing at the Caribbean Championships, including one for the best male junior athlete Kadyr Baptiste, the best female coach Siobhan Rogers, as well as for the best school at the competition.

The following day at the Nationals, the school continued hoovering in the silverware, 43 in all, and was particularly dominant in sparring, where they nabbed 10 gold and 11 silver medals. They got eleven gold medals in the forms division. Three more awards followed for the club at the nationals, including one best youth female Anna-Marie Hosein, best youth male Veejay Bhwaniesing and best senior female Stacy-Ann Julien.

“The overall performance of the athletes was exceptional with many of our club’s fighters being matched up with larger, or more seasoned athletes, but still answering the call with courage and skill,” Breedy explained.

“The back-to-back competition was rough on the younger and less experienced athletes who were unfamiliar with that level of grind. However, it was a great experience for them as many international tournaments last days and also have similar back-to-back set ups so they were able to get some vital preparation for that level of rigour.”