Kees Yorkton took a team of four junior competitors to a high level training camp and tournament held at the high altitude Mexican Olympic Training Centre in San Luis Potosi. The training centre is referred to as La Loma. The Yorkton participants were Samuel Lohnes, Kathryn Lohnes, Shane Varjassy and Eric Fookes.
The director of the Mexican Taekwondo Program is Ireno Fargas. In the Taekwondo world Ireno is a legend. He was on the Spanish team for five times in a row and was the first Spanish World Champion. He has been national coach for Spain, France and Mexico. As a coach, his taekwondoist have got 16 Olympic medals (4 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze), 48 medals in World Championships (13-11-24), 49 World Cup medals (12-16-21) and 75 medals in the European Championships (30-20-25). He was the former program director and talent identifier at the Spanish national training centre CAR Barcelona.
The camp started with our arrival on October 30th and concluded with a tournament on Sunday, November 4th. The camp consisted of multi-disciplines such as hapkido and poomsae but mainly focused on Sport sparring. This included conditioning, warm-ups, recovery as well as sparring with the Mexican Team. The athletes ate, rested, trained and slept with Taekwondo on their minds the whole trip. There were usually two 4 hour sessions per day with little time to allow recovery and eating. It help us to re-confirm the validity of our own physical preparation program that was well in line with the skills and drills that were conducted at La Loma.
The training, though hard, gave our team new confidence. They could see that they were well in the ballpark of the abilities and talent of the Junior Mexican team. They were nervous for the event but confident. The tournament had over 2000 competitors and was held in 7 rings. In Mexico they do not hold matches if your coach is working in another ring. This resulted in Samuel Lohnes fighting his match without a coach because a fellow team member was fighting at the same time in a different ring. Samuel had a great performance utilizing a footwork technique that was new to him. It was quite successful finding Samuel ahead at the halfway mark. To his credit this was done without a coach in his corner. However the final score was 11 to 10 against Samuel by the eventual Mexican Gold medalist. Samuel captured bronze for his efforts.
Eric Fookes had a close loss to a Mexican competitor with a final score of 5 to 4. Eric got a bronze in his division. He also had an entertaining match against a very active Ecuadorian fighter. This was the best match in which we have seen Eric compete. Eric led most of the game by a point or two. The end of the second round was a more comfortable 9 to 5 for Eric. The third round was strong for Ecuador. With seconds to go the score was 12 to 11 for Ecuador. With a final exciting drive Eric scored to tie the game and send the match to sudden death. Within 15 seconds into the Overtime round Eric scored for a win. He did not notice how excited the crowd was for his match and many gathered around his ring to be closer to the action. Both fighters received a well deserved round of applause in admiration of the performance.
Shane Varjassy had a very good first match that he controlled after a shaky start in round one. He re-focused and slowly widened the score gap to come out with a 12 to 5 point game. He was a calm competitor for most of his difficult challenges and performed to the best of his ability. His final match was against a very good Mexican competitor. Shane fought a very smart match but ended up short settling for a respectable silver medal in his division.
Kathryn Lohnes had a very respectable performance at this World Festival Taekwondo game. She has been working hard trying to improve a couple of techniques and strategies. There was improvement but she will continue to raise her skill level and confidence for the future. Her first match was close for the first round. She settled in and managed the match well for the final part of the game beating her Mexican opponent by 5 points. Her gold medal match was against an experienced Ecuador fighter. Kathryn was also finding the high altitude atmosphere making it hard to breathe and recover for her gold medal match. The Ecuador competitor got out in front in the first few seconds and Kathryn played catch up most of the game. Again her confidence has grown and we look forward to seeing her compete in the US Open in February.
The level of spectator support is phenomenal in Mexico as this is the number 2 sport in their country. Following the event Kathryn was next to mobbed by younger competitors and other team members for photo ops. The level of excitement and commitment will improve in these young athletes. We look forward to their results in the near future.
Master Mitchell was their coach for the seminar and event. It was his contacts with Ireno Fargas that helped to facilitate this opportunity for the Yorkton athletes. At one time it was Master Mitchell that refereed matches that Ireno coached and Ireno commented how it was ironic that he is now watching Master Mitchell coach while he observes.
