Emmanuel Joshua Gucela is an unassuming looking young man but don’t let that fool you.
The 14-year-old member of the Cascadia Martial Arts Parksville taekwondo team is very competitive inside the ring.
At the recent 2018 Canada Open International Taekwondo Championships, competing in the Cadet 41 kg class, Gucela, despite being behind in points in most of his fights, remained menacingly calm and was able to strategically turn things around to his favour.
It earned him his first international gold medal, which was also a milestone for Cascadia Martial Arts Parksville.
Gucela has only been training with Cascadia for nearly two years. He is actually new to Canada having arrived in 2016 from Leyte, Philippines with his mother. He started taekwondo there.
“I trained hard to be in national competitions in the Philippines and now I’ve stepped up to compete in my first international competition,” said Gucela. “I am so happy to win a gold medal.”
It wasn’t easy though.
Things didn’t go smoothly for Gucela as he failed to meet the Cadet 41 kg weight requirement. Master Brett Fee said they had him running and doing some workouts to shed the extra weight.
“He was able to do it and thankfully it didn’t affect him that much when he competed,” Fee explained.
Gucela had three fights. He opened with a 23-3 win against Niculae Matthew of the United States but in his next two fights, Gucela had to come from behind to post one-point victories against American competitors Ian Lopez 20-19 and Jacob Lian 12-11. His opponent in the final Adam Luis Mendez of the U.S. withdrew due to a concussion giving Gucela the gold.
“Overall, it was pretty hard,” said Gucela. “It was a tough competition but I never gave up. I was behind on points but I kept telling myself not to give up.”
Fee said those close matches are hard to win.
“Sometimes a second here and there or an inch here and there can sway the match one way or another,” said Fee. “I was impressed with his mindset. He was confident yet respectful and was calm. This helped him through the day. When he was in the ring, he was focused and determined.”
Gucela is every instructor’s dream. Fee said he takes direction well and is very coachable.
“Being coachable, especially at this age is so important if they can take the feedback and implement the adjustments quickly then they have a great chance to be successful,” said Fee.
They had to work on some of Gucela’s techniques particularly his balance.
“In taekwondo now, if you fall while executing a kick, your opponent gets a point and he did that a lot of times,” said Fee. “It’s hard to watch that. But he was able to pull through. We will continue to work on it.”
Gucela, who is only five-foot-one, has a more difficult time fighting opponents taller than him. He said whenever he goes for a head kick, he ends up falling to the ground.
“I am getting taller,” Gucela quips. “I will keep on working on my high kicks and to try to keep my balance.”
Gucela actually resides in Cumberland and is in Grade 9 at Cumberland Secondary. When he first arrived here on Vancouver Island, he started at the Woo Kim Taekwondo School in the Comox Valley. His first competition was at the Island Open Taekwondo Championships in Parksville two years ago.
After attending a training seminar at Cascadia Martial Arts, Gucela decided to train with the Parksville club three times per week during the summer months to prepare for the Canada Open.
“I saw how advanced they are in sparring and I thought I could benefit from the training here,” said Gucela.
“It has helped me a lot. They have a lot of competitive people here and I can learn from them and also improve with them.”
With school back, Gucela said he had to cut back his training sessions here in Parksville because of other commitments such as cadet, piano lessons and homework.
Gucela hopes to continue competing but he knows its going to be twice as hard next year as he moves up from Cadet to the junior division.
“I am just going to keep on trying and I won’t quit,” said Gucela.
There were other Cascadia medalists at the Canada Open. Shelby Bell earned a bronze in the Junior F-55 kg and Jessie Bell finished third in the Cadet F-59 kg.
Cascadia’s competitive team are currently training hard for the annual BC Masters Cup Tournament that will be held at BCIT in Burnaby on Oct. 27.
Master Dustin Fee said they are hoping to bring around 20 members at the tournament.
