Young Taekwondo talents Nicole Striglogiannis and Lucas Mamonitis have both won gold and been selected to represent Australia at the 2025 World Taekwondo Cadet Championships.
The two will head overseas to Fujairah, UAE in May for the world championships.
Their head coach at Royal Empire Martial Arts, Elias, congratulated the two cadet fighters.
“These two kids have trained hard to get to where they are and it all paid off.”
Nicole started Taekwondo five years ago and has won gold at the 2023 and 2024 National Championships and Global Martial Arts Spring Open 2024.
“I trained hard and worked hard, I’m so happy to have this opportunity to represent Australia in Dubai,” Nicole told Neos Kosmos.
“I’m nervous but excited at the same time. Looking forward to traveling overseas as this will be my first time out of Australia.”
Her parents Bill and Kate said they are proud of her and watching her journey, especially the last few months.
“Nicole has come a long way and trained so hard to get to where she is we are so proud of her and her little brothers really look up to her as a role model,” Kate said.
Lucas, who has been doing Taekwondo since he was able to walk, was training six days a week and conditioning himself leading up to the selections event in Canberra.
Lucas had a stacked division with around 10 fighters, he had four fights in his draw to win to be able to be selected.
He won all four fights convincingly and has secured his spot in the Australian Taekwondo Team.
“After his final win we all had mixed emotions of happiness and tears,” his father Phillip Mamonitis told Neos Kosmos.
“We all know how hard Lucas trains and had wanted to make the Australian Team. His dreams have finally come true and hopefully he can go further and bring home a gold medal and become a world champion.
“Words cannot be enough to express how proud and happy we are for Lucas.”
Lucas has won two national titles, over a dozen state titles, countless gold medals with other competitions around the country. He’s also won a silver medal at the Malaysian open in 2024 with over 20 fighters in his division.
“Lucas has a very bright future with Taekwondo and we can’t wait to see where this will take him,” Phillip said.
His ultimate goal right now is preparing him for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
