By MONTY MOSHER -- Halifax Chronicle-Herald THE WORLD HAS its eyes fixed on the upcoming 2000 Olympics in Australia, but Wendi Jewers has one eye toward the 2004 Games in Athens.

The 24-year-old Antigonish native and second-year Dalhousie dental student, is the first woman from Atlantic Canada to become a carded athlete in tae kwon do, making its Olympic debut this September.

She won that distinction at the Olympic Division Canadian National Tae Kwon Do Championship earlier this month in Montreal, where she beat the national champion from Quebec to win the gold medal. The event was strictly to determine carding.

The 12 months of financial assistance she will receive from Sport Canada beginning in November provides a monthly allowance and in addition covers a portion of her university tuition.

Only in the sport for five years, Jewers can now set her sights on a world championship opportunity in the next year or two. She will need to win her weight class at nationals to achieve that goal.

Although Canada has but one tae kwon do athlete heading to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics, she believes the 2004 Olympics are within her reach.

"I'd like to make it to a world championships and I think that's a very realistic goal," she said. "I basically just have to win the nationals and I've been close so far. If I keep going at the rate I'm going I should make the world championships before I get too old and have to retire.

"The Olympics are kind of different because it's only every four years so you're going to have to be on top at the right time. So there's a lot of luck involved. I think I have a good shot at the 2004 Olympics, but anything can happen."

After losing her bronze medal matches in the 57-67 kg (light) division in her first two nationals, she broke through with a silver medal this May at the Canadian championship in Hamilton, Ont.

In the carding meet in Montreal, she had to come first or second against all comers on Saturday in order to meet the rested and relaxed Canadian champion, Lynda Forget from Quebec, the same woman who defeated her in Hamilton for gold.

She won three of four matches on Saturday (she lost her last match after she had already clinched a spot for Sunday), then beat Ontario's Diana Sen and Forget for the championship.

"I knew it would probably be a miracle if I won just because, not only do you have to win on Day 1, but usually you are kind of beat up and bruised and stuff when you get up the next day," she said. "It's really hard to fight on Day 2 a lot of times so to win on Day 1 and then be in good enough shape to fight again on Day 2 and actually win, there was a lot of luck involved."

Cape Breton's Marty MacDougall is the only other tae kwon do practitioner in the region to receive federal support.

Jewers, a former St. Francis Xavier student, took up tae kwon do in Antigonish and remained in the sport when she moved to Dalhousie.

She was coached by Bob White in her previous nationals and joined his club in Dartmouth earlier this year to find top-notch sparring.

A former gymnast and cross country runner, she looked for something different late in her teens to satisfy her competitive urges. She had tried judo when she was younger so martial arts weren't totally foreign.

"There weren't a lot of sports I could start up when I was 19 cause I didn't know how to play soccer or anything else," she said. "So tae kwon do was a sport I could start from scratch at my age and be competitive again."

She has broken bones in her hands and wrists during sparring competition. However, she is unafraid when she enters her matches.

She's drawn to the intensity of the game.

"I like the competition," she said. "I like training and testing myself."