It all came down to the point gap.
Burnaby’s Josipa Kafadar proved ready for anything three weeks ago in her pursuit of a national taekwondo title, and now the 15-year-old black belt is going to the World Junior Taekwondo championships, which are being hosted in her hometown later this year.
“When I realized what had happened, for a moment I was speechless,” said Kafadar. “I couldn’t believe I had reached my goal of a junior championship (title).”
In the final, Kafadar squared off against the defending champion and emerged with a clean 7-0 decision.
“I thought during the match I stayed pretty calm and felt like I had good control,” she said. “I had never faced her before but I had watched her and kind of knew what to expect.”
Prior to the final, the 5-foot-8 Alpha Secondary student had registered three victories by point-gap, where a 12-point lead before the start of the third round or during the third round ends the match.
It has been a terrific year so far for Kafadar, who attended both the U.S. and Canadian Open events. The 2015 Canadian Open champion, the north Burnaby native gained valuable experience in facing the Pan Am junior champion, to whom she lost to in overtime.
“Because this is my first junior year I felt these were big achievements for me,” she said.
Kafadar took up the sport at the age of four with the encouragement of her father, and started on the competitive side a year later.
“I won my first competition and saw how much fun it is… I always want to make my dad proud.”
A champion nationally at both the cadet and junior levels, Kafadar trains at both Burnaby’s Metro Taekwondo Studio and Surrey’s Woo Kim Taekwondo.
Her coach, Metro master Jason Ruiter, said credit goes to Kafadar’s supporters.
“She has surrounded herself with good role models, good coaching (and) teachers, and most importantly, she has the support of parents that push her enough and help keep her balanced between her sporting life in martial arts and her studies,” he said.
With November’s world juniors now cemented in her schedule, Kafadar said it will all come down to training.
“I prepare as I do for the nationals just more intensely, more days of the week… Potentially I’d like to go on to compete at the junior Olympics and the Olympics someday.
“This is a stepping stone for me to get where I want to be.”
