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  • 5 months ago
T&T's Cheryl Ann Sankar is on a mission to discover the country's next Olympic star in Taekwondo.

It's been a challenging journey so far, but the former Olympian is gaining momentum.

Sankar recently led a 12-member team to the Suriname Taekwondo Open and they delivered in a big way, returning home with 12 trophies.

She believes it's just the beginning of bigger things to come.
Transcript
00:00There is one female that stands out in taekwondo in Trinidad and Tobago, Cheryl-Ann Sanka.
00:10A legacy built on her enduring capacity to rise to the occasion, fight and win.
00:15She carried the flag for TNT in the sport through the 1990s and early 2000s,
00:20even being ranked fourth worldwide, gracing the Olympics.
00:24You know, that is everybody's dream. Before I started taekwondo, that was my dream.
00:28Like, I'm training to go to the Olympics and there I was out of 42 countries,
00:33it was just myself and Brazil and the Pan Am region to be there.
00:37So it was a great honor, you know, to be there.
00:40She carries this car after it all. A wound from a broken foot suffered in the sport at the highest level.
00:47Well, after the Olympics, I just, I trained. I went to tournaments again, you know,
00:52we went to CC Pan Am Games and those things and I retired in 2010 after that.
00:58That wound is a brand now that she can use to inspire her talented group of students
01:03who won 12 trophies at the Suriname Taekwondo Open.
01:07They are being taught to embrace the art of combat.
01:11How did you perform?
01:13I performed good and I lost and I got third place due to my injury in my leg.
01:24Oh, so you got injured during the competition?
01:27Yeah.
01:28How did you get injured?
01:30Um, he kneed me behind my shin.
01:34Alejandro Haynes is one of the gold medal achievers at the Suriname Open.
01:39He was kicking the pads strong enough to buckle the Olympian.
01:43I'm very happy with my progress but I still want to get better.
01:47Alright, and what do you have to do to get better?
01:49Train consistently and to my best.
01:53Did you think you would win?
01:55Yes.
01:56His mother says she is following her son's lead.
02:00His hopes I think is more important than mine.
02:03At this point he is motivated to go to the Olympics.
02:08So he is training for that from now.
02:13Funding continues to play a big part in the growth of the sport
02:16and Asanka says it's needed for the sport to advance.
02:20We're looking forward to go to Aruba, you know, but basically we're back here.
02:24We want to train but most of it is finance, you know.
02:28So we do a lot of fundraising.
02:30We have the parents.
02:31So we do a lot of fundraising so we can go out there.
02:34It would take consistent practice for one of these students to master one kick.
02:39So she is preparing their minds to develop the discipline to execute it
02:43when it matters at the higher levels like Pan Am and the CSE Games.
02:47Well, I would like to see, as we said, you know, Olympics.
02:50That is my dream.
02:51You know, having seen them reach to that level so we can go Olympics.
02:55You know, stepping stone from CSE, go up to Pan Am, Worlds, you know, and then from there.
03:01A broken foot did not stop Sanka's love for the sport.
03:05And if given the right funding, Sanka believes that she has what it takes
03:08to produce another Olympian for Trinidad and Tobago.
03:11494, TV6 Board.
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