Jovena Peñol is someone really special! After just two years of training in the combat sport Muaythai, she has won two international championship medals and has qualified for The World Games in Chengdu. “A natural”, and thoroughly dedicated to her relatively new-found sport, Peñol is now heading into another landmark year.
“Attracted through my big brother”
As is often the way, it was family influence that started Jovena Peñol along this exciting road.
“I got attracted to Muaythai through my big brother; I saw him fighting, and I felt inside me that I would like to fight too,” she says.
She enrolled for a basic course in Muaythai in January 2023, at the same gym where her brother trains.
“After the basic course, my coach asked me if I was interested to fight, and of course I said yes! My coach saw a potential in me right from the start – and he would hold pads and teach me techniques already at the beginning. I took my first match right after my basic course, against an experienced opponent, and won it!”
2023 – European Champion after 10 months in the sport!
Jovena Peñol continues the story of her amazing progress in 2023: “My coach was impressed with my performance and continued to train and teach me. There was an upcoming national championship and my coach saw that I had the potential to win it, and he trusted me and let me participate. With hard work over 8 months I was able to win the Finnish championship - against experienced opponents!”
“A few a weeks later my coach told me that the Finland Muaythai community wanted to give me the opportunity to participate in the European Championship, and asked me if I wanted to go, and of course I said yes to that too! I and my coach worked really hard, so that in December in Turkey, after 10 months in the sport, I was able to win the European Championship (-48 kg class) against very experienced opponents from Ukraine and The Netherlands. I was in tears after winning, knowing it wasn’t easy to get there.”
Inspiring coach and role model
Peñol’s home town, Tampere, is a stronghold of Muaythai in Finland. “I’m lucky in that I found the right gym with the right coach here in Tampere. I have a great coach, Pertti Nurmi, with a great role model, Milja Heino. With them I feel extra powerful because of their historic success and accomplishments together. And I believe that if they were able to reach the top, then there’s also a chance for me to get there too, because I have them by my side.”
“My coach knows Muaythai from top to bottom, and can teach me all the right techniques and has been doing this for many years, and I have Milja Heino who inspires me to get better. I would watch her do heavy bags and pads and her kicks are perfect and powerful. I would ask them how I can improve my kicks and punches, and other techniques that I want to learn, and they would show them to me and I would train even more to improve my technique.”
In The World Games – just 32 months on from the start!
What was your reaction, when you found out you were qualified to take part in The World Games? “To be honest I was almost expecting to go there! I told my coach last year that I wanted to get in The World Games 2025, and I knew there was a chance …”
No tears of joy this time, but a steely determination: “I’m going out there aiming for the gold medal.” And the qualification has brought her a good deal of publicity, in home town Tampere and well beyond.
“I'll be putting special focus on both physical and mental preparation for the event,” says Peñol. “During the Games in China, I'm looking forward to competing, enjoying the atmosphere, meeting many athletes from around the world, and experiencing the host city. It's a very exciting prospect, and I can't wait to be a part of it all!”
"Last year I had to face my first loss at the IFMA World Championship against Thailand. My opponent was very experienced and displayed very good technique. However, I learned a lot from that experience. This year I’ll make sure to also come back as the World Champion," Peñol concluded.
Milja Heino – inspiring role model
Milja Heino is one of the big names in Finland Muaythai. She was national champion in 2005 and 2006 and went on to become a multiple world champion in her weight class and a SportAccord World Combat Games gold medallist. She is a member of the same Muaythai club as Jovena Peñol – the Chitalada club in Tampere – and has had the same coach. Now aged 42, she has also become well-known in Finland as an actress!