Our Foundation in Arts student and taekwondo black belt, Benjamin Chong Jun Hang, has brought great joy to the QIU community and all of Malaysia by winning a bronze medal at the recent 10th ITF Taekwon-Do World Cup 2026 in Benidorm, Spain.
Benjamin, competing for his country in the hotly contested Individual Male 15–17 Years – Pattern 1 Dan class, swept past a field of over 150 contestants from around the world to finish third on the podium. Along the way, he beat higher-ranked opponents with his superior display of martial arts skills and nerves of steel.
For context, the ITF Taekwon-Do World Cup is among the premier events on the global martial arts calendar. This year it drew over 2,600 competitors, who tested themselves across categories of pattern choreography, power-breaking, sparring, and special techniques.
Judges for Benjamin’s class scored contestants on the quality and logical sequence of defensive and offensive movements, known as ‘tul’, performed against imaginary opponents. A tougher ask than it appears, says Benjamin, as “we need to perform under pressure, which is why they put our category almost at the end of the competition.”
Benjamin’s journey to success on the world stage has been years in the making. All sporting glories are built on struggle and sacrifice, and his story is no different. He missed the World Cup in Argentina in 2024 because of insufficient funds, and a year later couldn’t compete in Croatia because of his SPM exams. His strict training schedule also meant he missed out on quality time with family and friends, and the many memorable moments that teens his age take for granted.
But nothing could shake Benjamin’s resolve to prove himself against the best in his chosen martial art. He trained harder. He knew this was his year.
His parents and instructors always had faith in his talent, going back to when he was only five years old and entered a ‘dojang’ – a practice hall for Korean martial arts – for the first time. He had looked around awestruck, his tiny limbs itching to mimic those sparring before his eyes. More than a decade later, it was time to prove them right. To our delight, he did.
Benjamin is also grateful to the QIU community, especially his classmates, for their role in making his podium finish possible. “They gave me a lot of mental support, and that motivated me more to go and try to win the competition,” he says.
Today, Benjamin isn’t content to rest on his laurels. He aspires to win both the World Cup and the World Championship for Malaysia by, as he phrases it, “performing my best version to the whole world.” We know he’ll do just that. There’s no stopping this young phenom.
