SAN Taekwondo’s Mathew O’Shea and club owner, Cameron Taylor, won national taekwondo titles in their respective divisions, showing Australia the best of Beerwah.
The Australian Taekwondo National Championships, held on November 8-10, saw San Taekwondo’s nine-strong competitive team win six medals.
Fifteen-year-old Mathew O’Shea, uncontested in his blue belt age division, competed in the U17 red belt division instead, where he won the title against older and higher-ranked opponents.
Cameron also claimed the Australian title in the heavyweight black belt open division, marking his fifth national title.
This was his first competition in 18 months, having been caring for his one-year-old child, making the victory even more meaningful.
“I won my division, and it’s been a while since I’ve fought, so that was nice,” he said. “It’s also my first title in my 30s, so I’m happy with that.”
Aimee Augustin earned a silver medal, narrowly losing her final 2-1. Christine, Kaitlyn, and Hudson took home a bronze medal each after being defeated in their semifinal matches. Cameron praised Mathew’s achievement and said he was proud of the team’s efforts.
“I am really proud, the team has been working very hard all year,” he said. “This was the final major event for the year, so they all put in a lot of training and discipline.
“Overall, we maintained the same win-to-loss ratio as last year, which is something I track as a coach to measure progress.”
He added it was nice to win titles for the club.
