Manx Taekwondo’s Nino Ontoy competed in the Second World Taekwondo President’s Cup in Germany recently.

The World Taekwondo Europe (WTE)-sanctioned event took place in the town of Sindelfingen near Stuttgart and saw the Isle of Man fighter competing in the Europe region of the poomsae and freestyle categories in the Cadet Individual and Cadet Pair classes.

In the individual competition, Nino went up against 29 competitors including three Koreans who all dominated in the earlier rounds, leaving him in fifth pace heading into the finals.

There he upped his game, pushing hard to finish level with a Spanish athlete but, with slightly lower performance scores, he just missed out on third, although he still claimed a medal.

However, the result meant the youngster qualified directly for next month’s 2019 WTE European Poomsae and Freestyle Championships.

In the pairs category, he teamed up with Shayma Mir from Premier Ki Taekwondo who he fought alongside in the 2018 British Poomsae National Championship.

Due to time constraints, organisers decided the category proceeded straight to the finals, which was good news for Nino as he had a plane to catch.

Despite a lack of training time together, they performed with very good synchronicity and power which led them all to way to the gold medal and another qualification to April’s European champs.

Their medals were the only golds achieved by the Great Britain poomsae squad at the competition.

Nino, Manx Taekwondo, Master Rod Nielsen and his parents would like to thank the high performance coaches of Team GB - headed by Master Gemma Biescas - and especially to Master Chan Sau and Master Chi Lai for their support and guidance to his success.

Manx Taekwondo welcomes new members - both adults and children.

Contact Rod Nielsen on 436181 or [email protected] or visit Manx Taekwondo on Facebook to find out more.