Holowiski captures taekwondo medals

CITY TEEN MEDALS TWICE AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Grace Holowiski’s debut at a taekwondo world championship was a double-medal success.

The 16-year-old Lethbridge athlete had to go through the taekwondo version of overtime to do it, but she didn’t come away empty-handed.

Holowiski was in Dublin, Ireland last month for the World Championships, coming away with a silver medal in specialty breaking and bronze in power breaking in the black belt junior girls division.

“I was very happy to get my medals,” said Holowiski. “It was awesome. There were 40 girls in the specialty division and 50 in the power breaking.”

However, the silver medal in specialty breaking took a little longer to get.

“The competition was intense. I was in a break-off for second place for four hours,” said Holowiski. “It’s jumping and doing kicks in the air to a machine. They just kept increasing the height. Against Romania, the height I lost at, the rope I had to jump over before I broke the board was at my next level (neck height).”

Being involved in a four-hour breakoff at the world championship level was as much of a mental challenge as a physical one.

“It was really nerve-wracking,” said Holowiski. “But as time went on there was only me and two other girls and then it was just me and Romania and that went on for a while, too. It was insane. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling.”

However, Holowiski had a cheering section.

“The ring I was breaking in was right close to where Canada was sitting and I had all the Canadians cheering me on.”

Four hours later, the tenacious battle paid off with a silver medal.

“When it was over I was (thinking) that I can’t believe I was able to place second at my first world championship and I put up a pretty good fight for it, too,” said Holowiski.

Fittingly, Holowiski’s bronze medal in power breaking also took a little extra competition.

“Power breaking is you have to break six boards,” she said. “It’s kind of dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. You can really hurt yourself. So going through it, I was happy I made it through all three, I got all my boards.

“So then I went into a break-off and there were 17 girls still left in the division, so I had to do a bunch more breaking and it gets even harder. Me and two girls were tied for third and I was able to break my boards and I got third.”

A total of 1,100 athletes from 62 countries competed at this year’s worlds.

Even though it was her first world championship, Holowiski set the bar high for herself as far as personal goals. Two medals later, she met those expectations. “I’m the top Canadian, so I had some high expectations going in, especially with my specialty breaking,” she said. “I was expecting to walk away with a medal.”

Back home, Holowiski trains at Merritts Ultimate Taekwon-Do Ltd. with instructor and Team Canada assistant coach Brandi MerrittMiyanaga.

“It’s awesome training with her because she really knows what she’s doing and without her I would not have been able to get where I am,” said Holowiski, who has been competing for seven years. “I started doing it when I was nine and I fell in love with the sport. The competition is fun and everyone who participates in taekwondo is nice. There’s no harshness. Even if you lose in a fight the person is still nice to you afterwards.”

Holowiski was in Grande Prairie two weeks ago for a competition in which she brought back four gold medals.

Her next competition is in Regina in April and after that, Holowiski is globe-trotting once again, heading to Australia in September for her next World Cup event. Until then, it’s back to work. “Lots of training,” said Holowiski. “I train six days a week and four days of the week doing classes. Every second in the gym was worth it to get to worlds.”