The Jamaica Taekwondo Federation’s Jayson Grant and Hakeem Lowe participated at the 2016 Costa Rica Open Taekwondo Championship in San Jose, Costa Rica on August 25-28, 2016.

Hundreds of athletes from 20 countries participated at this competition. The 2016 Costa Rica Open was a World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) G1 rank tournament, which means all the athletes who won medals in the senior events will receive points towards qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Jayson Grant competed in the 80+kg senior weight division and won his first fight 10-2 against Gabriel Diaz from Puerto Rico. In his second fight, he won 7-5 against Ramon Flores from USA and lost 2-12 in the final fight against Jonathan Healy from US to win the silver medal. For this, Jayson received six points towards the Tokyo Olympics.

Hakeem Lowe competed in the -51kg junior weight division and won his first fight 13-5 against Nicolas Padilla from Chile. In his second fight, he won 13-0 against Jose Puma from Peru. In his third fight, he won 10-2 against Mikel Cabrera from Ecuador. In his final fight, he lost 9-12 against Brad Garibaldi from Ecuador to win the silver medal.

Both Jayson Grant and Hakeem Lowe (in the red chest protectors) fought well, and proudly represented Jamaica and the Jamaica Taekwondo Federation (JTF).