Chong's performance in the qualifying round had overcome all competitors. The Canadian's final performance was now just moments away. In the eye of the storm, he waited quietly for his cue to take position. The clock ticked.

The signal came. He bowed and paced to the centre of the competition area. The music began. As Chong exploded into his choreography of kicks, leaps and spins, the entire audience roared its excitement.

In just a minute-and-a-half, it was over. Chong, panting, waited as the scores were collated. Minutes later, the decision was declared: The Canadian was crowned the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF)'s first-ever world freestyle poomsae champion.

Freestyle poomsae is the newest addition to the repertoire of competition formats at the world championship level. It incorporates the traditional forms of poomsae with music, acrobatic skills, and artistic interpretation. The new format has grown in popularity in many WTF Member National Associations and was adopted as the newest competition discipline at the 2012 World Championships in Colombia after debuting as a demonstration event the previous year in Vladivostok, Russia.

Charlie Chong made history when he won the first-ever world poomsae title at Tunja ©YouTube

Chong had been excited to learn about the addition of a freestyle division to poomsae competition.

"I have always been fascinated by that precision and power in the moves of poomsae, so to now be able to take that to the next level was really exciting for me," he said. "When my master and I heard of the news, we got to work trying things out and seeing what we could put together."

It was no easy task. The master-student duo agonised so much over Chong's routine that they were tweaking it on the eve of the World Championships.

"When we started training sessions and we saw the level of competition that I would face, we knew everyone had come prepared," Chong recalled. "My master and I decided we needed to up my level of difficulty, so three days before the compe- tition, we revamped my routine." That revamping went down to the line.

"Obviously the changes were worth it in the end, but it did mean a lot of late night training back at the hotel!" Chong said. "The night before competition I was training until after midnight."

The WTF's first ever world freestyle poomsae champion is not your typical youngster. He is a focused and determined individual who speaks deliberately, with careful consideration of the words he chooses. The discipline visible in his daily routine portrays a champion in training - not only in his sport but in his wider life as well. He is up at around 9am. and at the dojang by 2 pm where he prepares for his own training, as well as teaching the young kids that inspire him to forge ahead with his own dreams. In fact, his training often takes a backseat to his teaching, which he does not complete until around 10pm.

When asked about coaching he said, "The kids are really a driving force for me in my training," said Chong, who retained his world title in Bali in 2013. "They remind me of me when I was their age, so full of dreams of being a champion and so eager to train. Actually, I guess I am still that way, but the young students really keep me that way."

Is there pressure to be a role model for the students at his own dojang? "I don't know if the kids look at me that way; maybe they do," he replied with his characteristic quiet modesty. "I mean, they do know that I went to the World Championships, but I don't know if they give any meaning as to what it could mean. But there already is a kind of pressure to just be a good teacher. I hope I can have a positive influence in my life the way that my father did when I was growing up and that he and my coach have had in recent years."

Chong had two dreams when he was younger: being an Olympian and joining S.W.A.T, the elite police squad. He has clearly made his mark in the poomsae world and also competes locally in kyorugi. Meanwhile, alongside his training in taekwondo, he is working towards a career in law enforcement, having finished a two-year course in Police Foundations at Seneca College King Campus in King City, Ontario.

As fast as his kicks and spins may be, Chong chooses his words slowly and carefully before delivering them in a soft voice that is un- like that of many young men. He is a deliberate individual who is still planning his future.

He began taekwondo at the age of four when he was introduced to the sport by his father, a taekwondo master who helped to spread the sport at the grassroots level in Canada. When he was 13, his father moved the whole family to Toronto from Cambridge, Ontario, so that Charlie could have better training and his father could further develop his business. The decision to move paid off when he won that gold medal in Colombia.

So who is Charlie Chong? He is the standard that all others in the future of freestyle poomsae now have to live up to - himself included.