HOPE runs high in this family from Hoxton Park southwest of Sydney: All three children in the Albarico family are NSW State and National Taekwondo champions. Nine-year-old John Michael, a year-4 student at Good Shepherd Primary won a gold medal in the NSW Taekwondo Open championships at the Sydney Olympic Park last August. He won silver at the Taekwondo National championships in Brisbane last October.
By VIOLI CALVERT
Ang Kalatas
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The only girl in the brood, 14-year-old Kim Angelica, is in year-8 at Good Samaritan Catholic College She won a bronze medal at the Taekwondo National championships in Brisbane in October 2013.
The eldest, John Pau,l won a gold medal at the NSW Taekwondo Open championships last August, and in April he won gold at the South Coast Open Taekwondo championships in Nowra NSW.
John Michael and Kim Angelica have only been doing taekwondo for four years, each holding blue 2 and black belts respectively. Older brother John Paul has been doing taekwondo for five years and is currently holding a cho dan bo belt. The three are trained by Martial Arts Spirit head instructor Terrence Fernandez.
“To be a taekwondo champion is awesome,” says John Michael. “The best part of my sport is when I fight; everyone in my team is there cheering for me. And also I meet a lot of new friends.
Kim Angelica adds: “It is a really good feeling because it can’t happen to you everyday. The best part of my sport is winning, meeting new friends and being part of a very supportive team.”
John Paul says that being a champion has been very rewarding, in the sense with all the training and hard work have paid off. “For me, the best part of my sport is winning,” he says. “But win or lose, my team, MAS (Martial Arts Spirit) and my family are still there to support me.”
The champions’ father Allan Herbert, who hails from Antipolo, Rizal said: “They started doing taekwondo in the Philippines. Before, I wanted them to join taekwondo just to gain some knowledge in self-defense. But as soon as they started to win in sparring competitions, they started to take the sport seriously.”
He said the siblings were motivated to train harder because their goal now was to compete in the Olympic Games.
“Winning in competitions and being state and national champions are the best consolation that we got from our kids. And we are hoping that one day one or all of our kids will represent Australia or the Philippines in the Olympics,” he says.
Their mother Wilma, of Lucena City and who works as assistant nurse is equally proud of the children’s achievements. She came with the children in 2011 to join Allan who had been working as a mechanic in Australia in 2007. “Bringing them straight to training sessions as soon as we got home from work, travelling interstate or in some other place for competitions, seeing them getting injured or losing some fights are some of the challenges that we face since they’ve been in taekwondo,” Wilma says.
As for the future, John Michael wants to be a commercial pilot; Kim wants to be a doctor, and John Paul wants to join the Army,
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PICTURE:
John Michael, John Paul, and Kim Angelica at the 2014 Fiesta Kultura, in Fairfield NSW.
