Master Mariano Molina, VII Degree, is the ITF National Coach of Spain, a role he has held since 2006. “For several years, due to the small number of competitors in Spain, and my passion for competition, I fulfilled the double role of coach national and competitor, obtaining very good results in both roles. Currently I continue with the role of national selector and coach.”
Before getting into the ITF World Championships 2022, Master Molina, who is also the ITF Vice President of Spain, tells us about the development of Taekwon-do in that country in recent times. “As an Argentine immigrant in Spain, the growth of a hybrid taekwon-do with great influence from the experiences acquired in Argentina and the adaptations to the Spanish idiosyncrasy, to which contributions from other European countries are added, due to the fact that the circuit The number of national competitions is limited but there is a great international offer from neighboring countries. On the other hand, particularly in Barcelona there is a lot of immigration so I have the possibility of having competitors from different countries, some of them with previous experience in taekwon-do.”
From his role as Head Coach, he tells us that the preparation of the Spanish team was very good, “with an intense season of competitions and training, with a lot of optimism and a high level of commitment from the entire delegation.” A job that allows him to have expectations of “reaching the podium in different modalities, of course with the illusion of first place and all the energy invested in achieving the objectives.”
Who would you highlight in the team that will travel to the Netherlands?
I think that everyone deserves something to highlight… Probably the ones with the best chances of achieving the podium, from my point of view, are Cristian Fernández, Vladimir Orlov and Jimena Barayón.
His look at the great candidates for the World Cup has England and Argentina as the ones that “are always among the favorites and I think that this year the Netherlands will play an important role in that regard… And of course Spain will rise to the occasion .”