Cullinan fighters rake in the medals
Alexander Grobler and Svetlana Zalevskaya excel at the SAKMAA national championship.
Svetlana Zalevskaya and Alexander Grobler, two SATI Federation black belts took part in the SAKMAA nationals on May 4.
The tournament was held at the Cullinan Sports Centre, and fighters from all over South Africa took part.
This mother and son trained under the leadership of the world champion, SBM Manie Naudé clinched five medals each.
This competition served as a qualifier for boo subim (BSB) and for Grobler and Zalevskaya for the ITF World Championship, which will be in Spain in 2025.
Grobler obtained gold medals for continuous sparring and point sparring and silver medals for his International Taekwon-do Federation (ITF) weapon forms and combat weapon sparring.
He faced masters and national champions of the arts and was also the youngest in his category. Grobler has achieved much from a young age and is currently a student at the Prestige Varsity College.
He is a second-degree ITF and Hapkido black belt, a multiple South African and African Cup champion and an Arnold Classic gold and silver medalist.
Boo subim (BSB) Zalevskaya (second degree) also competed against many opponents and won four gold and a silver medal.
A notch in her belt, is her previous achievements, such as beating world champion Carol Woolf from the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) and receiving the Salmon P Barnard Trophy for the best ITF Female fighter for several years.
Zalevskaya said, “All of my achievements I owe to my coach, who has been with me since the beginning of my Taekwon-do training.”
