AMY GETS WORLD SILVER IN WTF WORLD PARA CHAMPIONSHIPS

The WTF World Taekwondo Federation held its 2nd WTF World Para Taekwondo Championships in St Petersburg Russia, along with the WTF ETU Championships.
Amy Truesdale already World Para Bronze medallist in last year’s Inaugural event held in Baku Azerbaijan was chosen by GB Taekwondo Sports Performance Director Gary Hall to once again represent Team GB in Russia.
Amy was to travel with Para GB Coach Master Peter Johnson along with the Full GB Squad to Russia to St Petersburg.
The Para team was located at the Park Inn St Petersburg, along with all the other Para Teams, and this year’s competition had a much bigger entry than last years in Baku so the pressure was on this time for Amy to deliver.

Amy has been trained and coached in Stoke by coach Peter Johnson and she has been competing Nationally in able bodied competitions with National BTCB Bronze and Silver medals also in the BTCB 1st -2nd International Championships also attaining Bronze. So Amy is already a seasoned competitor on the National able-bodied circuit and this is essential preparation, for Amy informs Coach Johnson for Amy’s development for the World Paras.

One of Amy’s main strengths is her extreme flexibility and this now turns into a problem at this event as in the Para event no head shots are allowed and Amy has had to work twice as hard on her middle section kicks to enable her to go for gold at this event.

In Baku last year the WTF used the Lajust electronic body protector which was very hard to score with, this time they were using Daedo equipment and this was again a unknown quantity so with advice from GB team coach Stephen Jennings and team coach Peter Johnson setting up a training area in Red 2 a part of the massive hotel complex Amy worked intensively on the techniques that hopefully would allow her to win.
The Draw was made on the day before the competition and Amy was drawn against the Azerbaijan national team champion in the semi final, the weight groups were amalgamated due to the numbers in the competition and Amy’s opponent was much heavier but Amy’s experience from last years event shone through and Amy out classed her opponent scoring frequently with jabbing side kicks dominating all three rounds in the semi final winning on a 8-2 majority which took Amy through to at least Silver medal position . In the other Semi final the tall and much heavier Canadian went through to the final against Amy, the Canadian beating the Turkish Silver medallist from last years Para Worlds, so the World Para final would be between Amy and the Canadian national Champion with Amy conceding Nearly a Stone and a half in weight.

Amy was fired up with her victory against the Azerbaijan champion and was ready to compete, but the competition was put on hold over a two hour-long dinner break that was not really necessary. After the break Amy’s final would be the first on the mat and was much anticipated, from the outset in the first round Amy attacked and had the advantage right up to the third and final round were she went 6-4 ahead with barely seconds to go to become World Para Champion.

We had discussed this scenario days before and agreed that if this happened we would pull back and try to let the time pass and hopefully gain the advantage but with Amy being an attacking player and in the heat of the moment she attacked the Canadian again in a flurry of kicks that brought the outcome to 7-7 in a tie that took the final to a golden point.
Alas in a couple of seconds the Canadian scored at the same time as Amy hit the Canadians protector but the Canadian secured The World title with Amy getting World WTF Silver medallist status.

Also the GB Para Team were to get the 3rd in the Female team Division out of five female teams the GB Para team came away with a massive 3rd Place team trophy with the only worry of how to get it back on the plane to GB.
It was great to see all the British team come to the presentation ceremony with GB performance director Gary Hall extremely pleased at Amy’s achievement and GB Olympian Sarah Stevenson leading the GB stars in congratulating Amy.

Coach Peter Johnson was delighted at the result even though it was a cruel way to be denied world champion Amy had progressed from last years Bronze to a World Silver medal and with the announcement that the next WTF Para’s would be held in Korea and also possibly trailed in London 2012 as a Olympic demonstration sport, expectations for Amy to become a WTF Para Olympic Champion are on the cards.