RMC student to join Team Canada for the World Poomsae Championships

For local student Hannah Lee, 2019 was a really exciting year, and now, just one month into the year, 2020 is shaping up to be even more exciting.

Lee, a first-year Royal Military College (RMC) cadet, has been a celebrated taekwondo athlete during her entire time at the school. The Cambridge-born student competed individually and with a partner at the Taekwondo Canada Open in October of 2019, where she also wound up filling a vacant position on Team Puerto Rico and earning a silver medal.

Now, after winning gold in the U30 (under 30) Women’s Taekwondo Poomsae category, Lee is a national champion. That victory means Lee has qualified as a member of Team Canada, whom she will join to represent the country at the World Poomsae Championships in Denmark in the spring of 2020. Poomsae, which is Korean for ‘patterns’ is the discipline of performing taekwondo patterns.

“It definitely took a lot of hard work, persistence and dedication to get to where I am now – and I still have a long way to go from here,” Lee said.

Alongside her civilian teammates, Justina Yu and Briana Mei, of Taekwondo clubs in Toronto and British Columbia respectively, Lee trained over the winter break in preparation for the national championships.

“We were all holding hands as we waited for the results to come out, knowing that we did the best we could with only four days of rigorous training we had together during the winter break,” Lee expressed. “When we saw that we had secured a spot on Team Canada for the World Championships in Denmark, we all cried in joy and hugged each other.”

The World Poomsae Championships will see elite athletes in the sport from around the world come together to compete in Vejle, Denmak from May 21 to 24, 2020.