Hello, Tim Gavel here from the Region Media Group. We're down
here at the Forza Taekwondo Club at Weston Creek and some
exciting news in the lead up to Paris Olympics
and Los Angeles and then 2032 in Brisbane,
the next generation of Taekwondo players coming through.
We have John Masiello who's the coach down here and two athletes
who've been selected for that next generation pathways program,
Giuliana Masiello and Sally Heslap. Firstly, John, how
exciting it is that to have two ACT athletes selected out of
eighty that went for these trials to to be selected?
I think just having the opportunity to attend was a great thing and
then having the two we sent up to get selected out of the
eighty was fantastic. I think the girls proved their
talents amongst the big group and really shown that day.
What does it mean now? I guess it gives you a
little bit of encouragement going forward doesn't it?
Yeah it basically means we're gonna get support from the
Pathways Program and Australian Taekwondo where we'll be able
to train with other athletes from the New South Wales group
and get support as far as strength and conditioning,
physiotherapy, and just that ground
support that comes with that. And how how come we got two
athletes from one club here, the only two athletes that have
been selected from the ACT to join this program?
Again, it speaks to how talented the athletes are and
how hard they work. I'm there just to guide them and
give them opportunities and but it's really off their hard work
that they've made the team. So, I'm really proud of them.
Alongside me is Sally Heslap and Sally, obviously, it's
pretty exciting, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
What does it mean to you? It means that I get the opportunities
to be the best I can be in training and get the support that I need to be able
to hopefully go to the Olympics one day. So that's the goal
you'd you'd love to go to the Olympics? Yeah that would be the goal.
How hard do you train? Is it all consuming?
Yeah I would say it's pretty hard. Yeah.
What do you do to train? Well it's just a bunch of
different things like strength and conditioning and then
technical trainings and just different variety.
That's great Sally. Also alongside me is
Giuliana Masiello and Giuliana, I guess you've got similar aspirations
to to Sally? I would say the same. I'm really
happy I was selected for the PPP and yeah I wanna go
to the Olympics eventually. Yeah. So watching the Olympics
on television did it sort of give you a bit of kick and
think yeah I'd love to be there? Yeah watching like all
the young people especially doing well like made me feel
like I have like a good chance of doing well there.
What do you like about Taekwondo? I like kicking people.
It's just fun. I've done it most of my life so it's just a lot of fun to train.
And how do you go with your dad coaching you?
Is it a bit hard? Yeah sometimes I get annoyed at him
but it he's a good coach. Yeah. That's good. Alright then.
Thanks Sally. Thanks John. And just finally Giuliana was
just talking there about watching it on TV and you
know it's pretty exciting yeah it is it's good to be able to
see what could be done like what I could do myself and just
look up to those people. Oh that's great. Alright thanks
very much for that. That's uh Sally Heslap alongside me
Giuliana Masiello and the coach down here John Masiello . We're
down here at the Forza Taekwondo Club Western Creek
and I'll be back with more in just a moment.
This week's sports wrap proudly brought to you by Sneedden Hall and Gallop.
Hello, Tim Gavel here down at the Forza Taekwondo
Club at Weston Creek for the sports report this week and the
Canberra Raiders take on the Melbourne Storm on Thursday
night. The Raiders currently in eighth position and the
Melbourne Storm in first and the Storm have won the last
three against the Raiders particularly hard game but the
Raiders showed a bit of form against the Dragons last
weekend. By the way, the Canberra Raiders Cup the
Gungahlin Bulls 28 defeated the Belconnen United
Sharks 14 and so the Bulls on top heading into the
final three rounds. The Queanbeyan Blues currently in second
position. One round to go and the John I Dent Cup before the
finals. We've got Tuggeranong, Uni North, Gungahlin, Wests and
Queanbeyan. Queanbeyan can still make it with one round to go. A
couple of very important games this weekend. Gungahlin playing
Tuggeranong, Royals taking on Queanbeyan and West playing Uni
Norths. By the way, a lot of speculation about who's going
to replace Dan McKellar after next season at the Brumbies.
Peter Hewitt, Steve Larkham, a couple of names mentioned there
with Dan McKellar focusing on the Wallabies after the 2022
season. Just in the soccer in the men's locally. We've got
Tuggerannong FC and Canberra Croatia in first and second
place. In the women's league, we've got Canberra Croatia and
Belconnen United and Canberra Croatia leading that by three
points. It's all pretty tight at the moment. Well, in the AFL
Canberra competition, with two rounds to go before the finals,
you've got Queanbeyan in first place, Belconnen second.
Ainslie defeated Belconnen by 15 points on the weekend.
Just sort of, I guess, throwing a little bit of shock into the
top two there a little bit in the AFL Canberra competition.
This is Tim Gavel signing off for the Region Media sports report.