Across the weekend of March 9 and March 10, the Chan Hun International TaeKwon-Do Federation (CHITF) World Championships took place in Australia for the first time, and a contingent of 19 students from the Goulburn Martial Arts Academy (GMAA) returned with 17 medals to their names.
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Australia shone at the championships, which took place in Melbourne, and was the most successful nation present with 77 gold medals, 83 silver medals, and 74 bronze medals.
Of all the schools who attended the event, the GMAA was ranked ninth, and head instructor Craig Harmer credited his students' success to the programs that he has had in place for a long time.
"This is my fourth World Championships that I've been to, and I've been a competitor and a coach at a number of those,
"I've always had good systems in place, so a lot of the younger ones who are coming up through their teenage years, for example my son [Thomas Harmer] ... he's been in our system from our Little Ninjas program, and a lot of those guys that come through that program and are now taking our main class, they all [claimed medals].
"Our systems are in place and they work really well."
The tournament was a personal success for Harmer as well. This year marked his return to competition, and he celebrated by winning two gold medals and a silver medal, which saw him crowned the Overall Champion Male.
"I was a little nervous the first fight, I probably didn't sleep the couple of nights leading up too much," Harmer said.
"Pretty good result personally, which I was naturally happy with. But I'm more pleased for my students and their results."
It is indicative of Harmer's pride in his students that their success was first and foremost in his own mind, and he said that it was important that competitors who were new to the World Championships scene saw their peers succeed.
"There's a lot of students that we had who were only competing for the first time at this tournament," Harmer said.
"Twelve months ago, they were peers walking into the academy, being so nervous and dealing with some anxiety issues. The fact that they took to the mat at the World Championship is far more rewarding as a coach than sometimes them receiving a medal, because that's a life skill that they'll be able to take on to other things."
