All the competitors have been telling us about their experiences of sacrifices and challenges in their preparation for the World Cup in the Netherlands. Double and triple training shifts, less free time for family and friends, ordering study and work obligations. In the case of Jessica Bass, IV Dan, to all this was added a back injury that forced her to redouble her efforts to arrive in good condition.
“The preparations for this year have been more challenging due to the back injury, but I feel good with what I have achieved despite this, I am looking forward to getting started” tells us the representative of Team Ireland for this ITF World Championship .
In general, Jessica Bass trains most days of the week, whether there is competition or not. Her preparation for Amsterdam made the only difference that “is traveling a lot more to train with the Ireland team and not having many weekends off due to preparations with the team.”
When she was a child she had already started her foray into Taekwon-do although she abandoned the activity for several years only to return “at 20 because my niece was already training with my trainer, Master McCabe.”
She began competing as a white belt in 2010. Since then, “I have attended 3 world championships and 2 European championships while she competed in Ireland, UK and Europe in between.” In this time, she achieved Bronze in Combat at the World Championships in Rome in 2014 and also Bronze in Forms in 2018 in Argentina, in addition to outstanding performances at the continental level.
For this World Cup, the representative of Ireland hopes “to do the best I can, it has been a tough preparation due to the injury… it would be great to come out with something but I’ll be happy no matter what.”