Maria Alvie Dela Cruz is Canada’s 2017 Poomsae National Champion
Maria Alvie Dela Cruz is Canada’s 2017 Poomsae National Champion
By Mila Astorga-Garcia
Toronto–FILIPINO-CANADIAN teen Maria Alvie Dela Cruz has once again brought honours to her country in the sport she loves. Dela Cruz is Canada’s 2017 Champion in the U30 Poomsae competition, both in the individual and team categories in the 2017 Canadian National Taekwondo Championships, held in Calgary, Alberta at the Olympic Oval from May 25 to 28, 2017.
Specifically, Dela Cruz won First Place in the U30 Female Individual Recognized Poomsae category, as well as First Place, with team mates Alissa Juman, Erika Caldwel, in the U30 Female Team Recognized Poomsae.
This is not her first time championship win in Canada’s national taekwondo competitions. Dela Cruz also won top medals at the 2016 Canadian National Taekwondo Championships held at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Alberta, May 13, 2016. She won gold in the Senior Female Individual Poomsae competition and won silver in the Senior Female Team Poomsae, with teammates Juman and Caldwell.
Dela Cruz has been winning since her teen years. At the Games Pan Am in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 2015, Dela Cruz won gold in the Female Junior Individual 3rd Dan division, and bronze in the Female Junior Team division, also with teammates Juman and Caldwell.
With her latest national win, Dela Cruz is now gearing up for the 2017 Canada Open International Taekwondo Championships and the 2017 World Taekwondo President Cup in October in Las Vegas,Nevada. She will also continue to train for the PanAM 2018 and the 2018 World Taekwondo Poomsae in Taipei.
The 18-year old athlete is a Life Sciences student at the University of Waterloo, and will soon be a Pharmacist. She is also teaching Poomsae at Blackbelt World Waterloo.
Winning in Poomsae especially her back-to-back National Champion titles from 2016-2017 are for Dela Cruz the most memorable experiences she’s had in her sport. Representing Canada in the international event is the next challenge that gives her most pride.
Taekwondo is a 2,000-year old martial art from Korea which is practiced in two distinct styles: sparring, which is the combative type seen in the Summer Olympics and Toronto’s recent Pan Am Games, and poomsae, which is a non-contact form of taekwondo. In poomsae where there is no gear used and points are awarded through accuracy of movement, attitude is key.
Dela Cruz once described her sport in a previous interview as “like dancing… there are patterns to do certain movements and motions… you have to think, you have to be calm, and you can’t be too nervous.”
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