Having come to Singapore first on a work pass as a technician in 2014, passion soon triumphed profession for Yuvaraj Loganathan as he took a leap of faith and became a full-time taekwondo instructor in 2017.
His efforts were duly rewarded. Seven years down the road, at the age of 38, he tasted his first international victory in an in-person event, winning silver in both the Recognized Poomsae and Virtual Taekwondo categories for the Under-40 Male-Dan (an advanced rank) at the 10th Daedo Taekwondo Open Championships held from Dec 6 to 8 at Our Tampines Hub.
The competition was sanctioned by the Singapore Taekwondo Federation and saw over 70 teams from 13 countries participating in close to 2,000 events.
Recognized Poomsae refers to a sequence of taekwondo techniques where one spars with an imaginary competitor, whereas in Virtual Taekwondo, athletes don a VR headset and motion tracking nodes to compete against the avatar of their opponent.
Competing under the Indian flag, in Poomsae, Yuvaraj’s 7.232 points placed him just behind gold-medallist Park Seong Jong from Singapore (7.882). In Virtual Taekwondo, he finished between two Filipino podium winners.
“It was a journey riddled with challenges,” Yuvraj said. “Just this October, I quit my job as an advanced taekwondo instructor at J H Kim Taekwondo Institute and returned to Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, as my father had an accident.”
As Yuvaraj helped his father recuperate in India, there lingered a sense of unfulfilment – that he had not reached a pinnacle befitting his ten years in Singapore.
“That was when I decided that I wanted to return to Singapore to compete in the Daedo competition,” he said. “I had previously won golds in two online international events but never in an in-person event before, so I wanted to make it count this time.”
In three previous Daedo events, Yuvaraj raised funds and brought his taekwondo students from India to participate in the competition. They were students from the Kalam UV Foundation, a non-profit he started in 2009, inspired by former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam. The foundation supports Indian students in their education and sports.
“My goal is to give deserving students the opportunity to shine. Some students whom I brought from India to the Daedo championships don’t even have a proper house or complete family,” he said.
The students repaid the faith with a good run, winning gold and silver medals at the previous Daedo championships. This year, however, Yuvaraj was unable to fly them over and had to be the sole representative from India.
Nevertheless, he dreams of a bright future for them: “One day, I want to see them compete in the Olympics. As for myself, I want to become an Olympic referee one day.”
