When Xavier Nikolovski and his parents were looking for a sport for him four years ago, he discovered taekwondo and quickly fell in love with it.
He’s shown a natural ability for the martial art and the 10-year-old has already won several titles in Victoria and interstate.
Now he gets the chance to represent Australia at the 2016 Korean Taekwondo Open in Gyeongju.
His father, Archie, says Xavier has worked hard at the sport.
Xavier had successes last year at the Victorian Winter Open championships and the Victorian Moomba Open and was a medallist at both the Victorian and Australian championships.
“We moved to Gisborne four to five years ago and we were looking for a sport for Xavier,” Archie said.
“He’s become really good, really quickly … within two and half years of starting he was winning state and Australian titles, and he’s done a lot of training and a lot of travelling to get there.”
Xavier started taekwondo in Gisborne before moving to Martial Fitness Australia (Taekwondo Academy) in Point Cook under Allan Malachowski.
Late last year, he won his black belt.
Xavier says he’s very excited about the trip to South Korea.
“I’m not expecting much … it’ll be pretty hard,” he said. “I enjoy it and fighting is my favourite thing.”
He said his next aim was the world cadet championships in a couple of years, with the long-term aim of making the Olympics.
Archie says the trip to South Korea is the next step in his son’s progress.
Xavier has been well supported in making the trip, with the Gisborne branch of real estate agent RT Edgar coming on board as a sponsor and New Gisborne Primary School also being very supportive.
“He’s done everything he can in Australia and we want to get him international exposure,” Archie said. “They take some talented young kids who are nine, 10 and 11 and prepare them for the world cadets, which is the 12-14 age group.
“If they have a few international trips behind them, they’ll know what to expect as they fight differently overseas.
“We’ll target cadets in the next couple of years, before juniors.”
While overseas, the young Australian team will have an intense training camp before competing in the Korean Open.
“We’re not expecting much, result wise,” Archie said.
“He’s at least a year younger than most of the competitors, and they are allowed to kick to the head.
“We don’t have that in Australia.”
