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.Sport
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TAE
KWON GOLD
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LAC
Troy Williams has his sights set on representing Australia
in next year’s world championships.
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WHEN
Leading Aircraftman Troy Williams was eight years old, he begged
his parents to take him to Tae Kwon Do lessons after a watching
a series of Kung Fu movies which captured his imagination.
Conscious that it was “probably just a phase” their son
was going through, his parents promised that if he was still as
keen on Tae Kwon Do in 12 months, they would enrol him in a class.
A year later, Williams was just as eager and, aged nine, he donned
his first Tae Kwon Do uniform and began a journey that would take
him to the top of the sport.
Last month, 12 years after that initial lesson, he won the Australian
Tae Kwon Do Championships on the Gold Coast, beating some of the
country’s best competitors in the 67-72kg division.
“It was awesome, for want of a better word,” the RAAF
Base Amberley fighter said of his national title win.
Now he has his sights set on representing Australia at next year’s
World Championships, an honour he’s already tasted as a junior
competitor.
Williams went to three World Junior Championships as a teenager,
eventually winning a bronze medal.
But as an adult he’s yet to experience the dizzy heights of
the international Tae Kwon Do stage, and he has no illusion as to
how fiercely competitive it will be.
He said an extreme level of fitness was required to match it with
the world’s best over three 3-minute rounds and he’ll
do everything in his power to ensure he’s in peak condition
When he’s not honing his fighting skills, he trains with RAAF
Base Amberley’s PTIs on a regular basis.
“Being in the Air Force has been an advantage in that way,”
LAC Williams said.
He said he would take it relatively easy in the lead up to Christmas,
before “training at 100 per cent” in the lead up the world
titles.
Apart from the World Championships, next year will be very important
in shaping hiss Tae Kwon Do career.
Solid performances at national and international level could lead
to a berth on the Olympic team, something that even the best competitors
in the nation never take for granted.
“Just because you win the national titles doesn’t mean
you’re on the team. You’ve got to prove yourself over
time,” he said.
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