English Taekwondo championships

Sittingbourne and Faversham Taekwondo club had a very successful day at the English Taekwondo championships at the University of Hertford in Hatfield on Sunday 7th October 2018. We took a strong team of 18 competitors. 3 of the competitors had never done a competition before. The ages ranged from 8 yrs up to 34 years and from Yellow belt up to 1st Dan black belt.

The competitors were:

Amelia (first competition)

Luke (first competition)

Jade (first competition)

Charlie

Marcus

Grace

James K

James B

Liam

Aella

Kado

Amalia

Terri

Sienna

Will

Chloe

Sophie

Tim

We arrived at different times which is why there is no team photo. The juniors were on first thing, well after Leo the Lion had given us a display of his new pattern and how to do the splits. I was refereeing on my own ring so the team was co-ordinated by Lita, Steve and Liam. Of the 3 newcomers to competition. Amelia had one fight but did not manage to win, she is keen to try again though at the next competition. Having enjoyed the experience. Luke shook off his pre-fight nerves and managed to win his first fight to the delight of his parents and the rest of the team. Unfortunately his next opponent was a bit more experienced and Luke lost out. He was very happy with his performance on the day and was awarded with a bronze medal. Jade surprised everyone with a gold medal in patterns, because she enjoys the sparring side more than patterns but she is now English Champion in her belt and age category. She was defeated in her sparring bout although she made a good account of herself. Jade was awarded a bronze medal in the sparring.

Throughout the day, there were great performances from all team members. Marcus, Charlie and James had arguably the largest of all the divisions so even though they had some success, it was not enough to win a medal. Marcus 2nd round, Charlie and James both first round. Grace made it through to the final only to lose to a tough opponent. Silver for Grace. James K had a strong division to contend with, winning his first fight but then narrowly missing out in the next round. Aella had a round robin with two girls that were over 10kg heavier than her. Aella showed great spirit and athleticism in both her fights, winning one and losing the other 3 judges to 1 against her. A Silver for Aella. Amalia and Terri were in the same division but on opposite sides of the draw so they could only meet in the final, sadly they both got stopped in the semi-finals both winning a bronze medal. Sienna opted for patterns only in this competition as a way to compete and try and build some confidence to get back into the sparring. She performed her pattern very well but sadly did not win a medal. Will had to wait until much later in the day to get on the mats. He had a tricky opponent with lots of experience as you would expect in the black belt division. He ended up losing the fight with a controversial and not clear outcome and was awarded a bronze medal. Chloe performed well in patterns, but her sparring was against a giant opponent and as a result lost out in the first round. Sophie was faced with not only a much bigger opponent but a boy of all things. Sophie was the epitome of bravery in her fights, not backing down, putting her heart and soul into the encounter and trying her absolute best to win the fight. She lost her first fight but then strangely was called on to fight again, she won the next fight again through guts and determination and had a 3rd fight which she lost. Sadly she did not win anything for all her efforts. She will be looking forward to the next competition as she is reigning British champion and that event is coming up in November.

We won four gold medals on the day, the first of which was won by Kado, he was imperious and did not look fazed or in trouble throughout his fights, another fantastic performance from Mr. consistent. Tim won the next gold, he had a tough fight against a wiley opponent but managed to out point and out skill his way to gold in only his second competition. Jade as I mentioned earlier won the third gold for patterns which left Liam to compete in the adult black belt division. This is a very tough division where there are no easy fights. Liam did not have it all his own way as his opponent was very physical and it was a hard fight. Liams superior kicking skill though had him way ahead on points and it drew quite a crowd of people to the ring to watch the spectacle. In the end, Liam won comfortably and impressed all of those watching.

So we ended up with 4 golds, 2 silvers and 5 bronze medals from 18 competitors. A long but fruitful day at the English Championships. Well done to all those who competed.