East girl has three more gold medals under her black belt
Chanelle literally kicked dirt into her opponents' eyes at the ISKA championships held in the US.
Nothing makes a father prouder than to see his child turn into a world champion.
Brooklyn SAPS’ Warrant Officer Marius van der Merwe is one such father after his daughter Chanelle was crowned three times world champion in different categories of sports martial arts.
The 16-year-old 10th grader received her Protea colours in sports martial arts this year.
She was part of the international sports karate association (ISKA) team that represented South Africa at the ISKA world championships in Orlando, Florida in the US from 7 to 8 July.
Annually, the US open and ISKA world martial arts championships bring together the world’s very best competitors from 38 countries.
Chanelle, a black belt holder, literally kicked dirt into her opponents’ eyes at the championships.
She achieved three first places in her age group of 16-17 years in the black belt class A division for creative form, creative weapon form and clash fighting.
She came second in the board breaking division and scored further two third places for continuous fighting and point fighting.
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She started taekwondo training at the Pretoria North Academy under Shabum Etienne Engelbrecht at the age of ten in 2013.
Speaking of her achievements she said it took a lot of hard work to reach the level that she had achieved and she practised four to five times a week.
She said her best experience of the tournament was making friends with competitors from all over the world.
She said seeing all the best of the best martial artists performing on the “night of champions” broadcast live on ESPN was also a privilege.
She said this was her first world championship and she was honoured to represent her country.
“I have started to train for the South African championships that will take place later this year.”
When she is not in her fighting gear, Chanelle keeps herself busy with her school work.
She said she planned to study further in either a medical or accounting direction.
Her father said he was very proud of her and thanked Engelbrecht for all his motivation, commitment and extra hours that he put into training Chanelle.
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