By Pam Kiriakidis
WANDONG’S 13-year-old Mackenzie Macdonald is determined to take on the next World Cadet Taekwondo Championships after representing Australia in Bulgaria in August.
The six-time national champion stepped on the mat for her first world competition against a much taller opponent from Israel in the 12-14 years old, 29 to under 33 kilograms division.
Despite losing 2-0 in the best of three, with an unfamiliar scoring system, Mackenzie said her focus was what kept her going to the end of the match.
“When you walked out onto the fighting mats it was very loud, everyone was screaming, cheering for their country … I don’t know how I can really explain it was just like a boom,” she said.
“It was a type of scoring system I hadn’t worked with really, it had a different type of electronic socks … [it was KPNP taekwondo] and in Australia we don’t use that, that brand is mainly used in Asian countries and it’s working its way all across the world.
Mackenzie Macdonald is prepared to make her way to the next World Cadet Taekwondo Championships after representing Australia in August.
“[During the match] I was sort of thinking ‘wow she’s taller than me, what can I do to get around that?’ Rather than going into problem mode, I went straight into problem solving.”
Mackenzie reached the Bulgarian tournament through several national competitions, including the Australian Taekwondo selection event in Sydney in June, where she earned a place in the national team.
Training six days a week with Hall’s Taekwondo in Melbourne under head coach Jerry Moraitis, Mackenzie said she would need to go through the same process to compete in the next world championships that will take place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in August.
In July, Mackenzie will take on the official Australian World Championship selection event in Brisbane and will fight on the same weekend at the President’s Cup, followed by the Oceania International Championship.
“[It’s] pretty much the same [world] championship, preparing with my training by building up the intensity and doing different types of training, so it could be focusing on different parts of my body,” she said.
Mackenize said part of training was also mental – reading through material to prepare for her next match.
“With my coach Jerry, he would often get our team to read different books about strong minds and listen to audiobooks that promote a strong mindset,” she said.
Since Australian Taekwondo cannot financially support representatives, Mackenzie and her mother Kristy travelled to Bulgaria after setting up a fundraising page, which received several donations and grants including a local sporting champions grant through the Australian Sports Commission, and a sports excellence scholarship fund.
To achieve her next goal, Mackenzie said she would need to raise more money in order to compete in the next world championships if Australian Taekwondo could not allocate funding.
Mackenzie said she was grateful to have parents who supported her dream of becoming a world champion.
“They’ve been so supportive, amazing, like driving me, doing meal planning on Sundays and doing big cook ups and supporting me through the tough times,” she said.
“In the future, I want to be world champion, I want to be an Olympic champion and I want to be, of course, known as a really good person.”
