St. George’s Grenada: ‘Striking the nail just right once again for Grenada’ is Fronzie Charles. The young man who has been carrying the torch for Grenada Taekwon-do for the last 13 years, captured a Bronze Medal at the 1st ever British International Taekwon-do Open Championship in Manchester, England on Saturday November 1st, 2008. ‘This was the largest Taekwon-do competition since Beijing’ the British Taekwon-do Control Board reported. Fronzie was the only athlete from the Pan American Region, participating alongside international Olympiads and other international athletes. After sustaining a serious grade-2 hamstring injury in Puerto Rico at the Pan American Championships last month, it did not seem possible for the athlete to compete for awhile, but that did not deter him. The Grenadian middleweight champion, with a division of 18 athletes, went on to beat Marco De Matos of Luxembourg 12-5, but was defeated by France’s Diallo Boubocan 8-5 in the semi-finals with Boubocan eventually capturing gold in the final against Great Britain. Standing proud next to him was coach and physiotherapist Mr. Khaled Esmair who commented ‘Fronzie has great talent and unique abilities in the art of Taekwondo. He possesses high physical and mental abilities, which makes him a unique and tough competitor in Taekwondo.’ Mr. Esmair has been volunteering and devoting his time to teaching the Grenadian since the two met at a local gym in late 2006. Also, giving support at Manchester was British Junior Coach, Mr. Seelan Rengasamy who added ‘Fronzie is becoming a stronger international athlete and his techniques have improved a lot in the last year.’ The Grenadian has captured more than 21 medals over the last decade. However, there is much more to his success than medals. He is the President of Grenada Taekwon-do Association the official governing body for Taekwon-do in Grenada, making him the youngest serving President in the Pan-American Region and member of the Pan American Taekwon-do Union. He was responsible for the successful reinstatement of Grenada with the World Taekwon-do Federation last October. Under his leadership, he brought on board former Canadian Champion, Andrea St. Bernard to join the Grenada team in 2007. Andrea captured both gold and a trophy for Best Female Athlete in Trinidad and more recently a Bronze medal at the Pan American Championships in Puerto Rico last month. Fronzie also captured a Silver medal and trophy for best fighting spirit, in Trinidad. The young athlete and President will be working closely with newly appointed Vice President of the Pan American Taekwon-do Union, Mr. Anthony Ferguson of Trinidad and Tobago, to strengthen and develop Grenada and the wider region. He will be rolling out a long term plan in the new year for Taekwon-do, which includes plans for building a bigger and stronger team to participate in next year’s World Taekwon-do Championships in Denmark and in London 2012 Olympics. He hopes to continue to work with the Grenada Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports to address one of the greatest challenges for Taekwon-do athletes – funding. At the moment athletes are self-funded. However, he is grateful for the successes so far and for the support he has been given by his committee members, in particular, Vice President, Nicholas Snagg. We can look forward to much more success in the near future for Taekwon-do. 2008 has indeed been great for Grenada Taekwon-do! INSIDE GRENADA NEWS