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Junior stars bound for Asia

31 Oct, 2007 10:18 AM
MARTIAL ARTS: Two South West Tae Kwon Do Academy members are flying to South Korea today to represent Australia at the World Poomsae Championships in Korea.

Wilhemina Baljeu, 17, and Jesse McLure, 13, are among 17 Aust-ralians who earned selection at the Melb-ourne trials in June to compete against 32 other countries in front of packed stadiums.

While the pair has known about the trip for a while, they said their level of excitement rose when they received their official tracksuits this week.

"I’m very excited, really pumped about it," McLure said.

"I just want to do my best really, there are no real expectations on me."

Baljeu is returning for her second shot at the world championships and is already amassing an impressive list of high level competition.

"I’m just really excited and want to improve on last year when I came 16th," she said.

"I’m after a top five finish this time."

The pair train five to six times a week with coach Shin Boo Kim, who they said had been very supportive in their preparation for the world championships.

McLure said Poomsae refers to the demonstration side of Tae Kwon Do.

"We go out one at a time in the middle of the mat and do a sequence of 30 or so moves and get judged out of 10 points," McLure said.

Baljeu said the sequences are based on Tae Kwon Do combat moves and requires extreme concentration on each actions power, speed and coordination while under the pressure of performing at a major event.

"It seems like 10 minutes but it’s actually about one and half minutes - and you see about one metre in front of you and everything is blurred out," said Baljeu.

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