A family that packs a punch
RANDPARK RIDGE – Local family represents SA in Taekwon-Do World Championships.
They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and in the case of the Pillay family in Randpark Ridge, this certainly holds true.
This is one family you do not want to mess with, with a taekwon-do second dan, black-belt father and his two black-belt children as his sidekicks.
Rahen, along with Erin (15) and Kyle (ll) have just returned from representing South Africa at the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) World championships in Iguazu, Brazil.
They formed part of the Authentic Centres for Excellence (Ace) team from South Africa, and won three medals among them.
Erin, a Rand Park High School learner who won a silver medal in patterns and a bronze in sparring, described Brazil as ‘hot and fun’.
“It was an amazing experience that brought the team together. We went to Iguazo Falls where you can even go behind the waterfall, which was amazing,” she smiled.
Kyle, a Randpark Primary School learner who won a bronze medal in sparring, said, “When sparring, you learn self-defence and to never give up. I am focused at all times and we learn to respect our instructors and seniors.”
Rahen introduced his children to the Korean martial art when they were six years old.
“I started doing taekwon-do about 12 years ago under our (Ace) leader, Shaheed Karachi, who gave our family lots of lessons over the years. The reason I got into it was for these two,” said Rahen.
“I wanted to be able to get my black belt and then grade them to their first black belt. That was my vision at that point in time.”
Rahen said he was not able to do this because his children graded their black belts at the same time that he graded his 2nd dan black belt.
“It was one of the proudest moments of my life. Then to see my children in a South African tracksuit on an international stage [at the World Championships] I was so proud.”
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