Melissa Joseph is honored after official notification yesterday that she was selected on the T&T National Taekwondo Team to represent the country at the Olympic Qualifiers, in Aguascalientes, Mexico this March. This was after her progressive and brave performance this past week at the US Open 2016 International Taekwondo Tournament, held in Reno, Nevada, USA.
Many of the world’s Olympic hopefuls and best medallists in the world used this High Level competition as a test for their respective countries selection.
Joseph fought strong in defeat in the toughest seeded bracket division, among the world's top ranked contenders. The task was the stiffest from the beginning, as Joseph was seeded against the world’s top 6th ranked fighter, Yun Tao Weren from China, who was defending her gold medal title from last year's Open, when defeating a six-time worlds medalist in that very final from Brazil. The Chinese competitor dwarfed joseph in size, standing at least a solid six foot which made the T&T athlete uphill task that much tougher.
This opportunity was a very good measuring stick for her by coming up against one of the worlds best. Joseph expressed that her competitor’s front kicks were like a snakes multiple strike, being precise, from different angles and fast. However, she stated that it never hurt her, as she was up to the task and beyond, but the opponents height was a big disadvantage for her.
Joseph would like to take this time to thank her coaches both in T&T and the US for all they have done in helping her and the T&T Taekwondo Association in having the faith to believe in her, by allowing her to exemplify her performance to compete at this high level and be selected among other Olympic gold medallists from other countries, all heading to the Olympic Qualifiers in the Quest for Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
It's just one more step now between Joseph and Rio Olympics 2016. Joseph said she’s training and preparing herself like she has never before in the next four weeks as the dream is within sights