Canada’s Skylar Park Battles to Bronze at Taekwondo Grand Prix Series in Manchester
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MANCHESTER—Canada’s Skylar Park celebrated her second taekwondo podium of the season at the Grand Prix in Manchester.
The 19-year-old Winnipeg teen took on the world’s best athletes in the women’s 57kg category and came away with her second career medal.
“We are very pleased with Skylar’s performance this weekend. Although it is not the colour of the medal that we came for, step-by-step we are working towards improvements to reach the top of the podium in Tokyo 2020,” said Master Jae Park.
Coming into the tournament as the fifth seed, Park knocked off Spain’s Tania Garcia Romero 9-2 in her opening-round match. She then edged out Poland’s Patrycja Adamkiewicz 16-13, before taking care of Croatia’s Nikita Glasnovic 9-4 in the quarter-finals.
Park met her match in the semifinal against the number one seed from Great Britain, Jade Jones, who went on to win the gold medal in the division. Jones beat China’s Lijun Zhou 11-4 in the final match.
“There has been an immense amount of hard work, sacrifice and resources for Skylar to have come this far, and we will work even harder on the journey towards gold in Tokyo,” said Master Jae Park. “We are excited about what the future holds for her.”
Olympian Melissa Pagnotta was the only other Canadian to win a match in Manchester. Pagnotta won her opening round battle in the women’s 67 category, topping Brazil’s Milena Titoneli 6-5 before losing a nail biter to Ukraine’s Tetiana Tetereviatnykova 9-8.
Six other Canucks lost in the opening round. Yvettte Yong in the women’s 49 weight class, Ashley Kraayeveld in the women’s 67 category, Nathalie Iliesco in the women’s 67+ division, Siddhartha Bhat in the men’s 68+ division, along with Andrew Park in the men’s 80kg division, and Jordan Stewart in the men’s 80+ category.
Canada was also represented by four international referees at the event. Canadian referees included Eric Wah, Susanne Mitchell, Jocelyne Carriere and Muftah Zorgani.
COMPLETE RESULTS:
Taekwondo Canada is the National Sport Governing Body for Taekwondo in Canada. We are recognized by World Taekwondo, Pan American Taekwondo Union, Sport Canada, Own the Podium, Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Canadian Paralympic Committee. Taekwondo Canada sends national teams to the Olympic Games, World Taekwondo Championships, Pan Am Taekwondo Championships, Pan Am Games, World Taekwondo Junior Championships, Poomsae World Championships, Pan Am Poomsae Championships, and is also targeting the 2020 Paralympic Games.
