It was a proud day for Taekwondo across the region on Sunday 22nd October when the British Taekwondo Council (BTC) hosted their national taekwondo tournament. 750 members of affiliated organisations gathered to compete in a variety of events to prove their skill in their art.
Among them then local instructors from the area gathered their teams together to vie for the coveted medals pulling together as one unit to represent their organisation – the Taekwondo Association of Great Britain (TAGB) and their local areas. Here in the midlands the Wyre Forest, West Midlands, Bromsgrove and Stourbridge groups joined forces to compete in team events and win a very impressive total medal haul of 24 medals, 6 gold, 11 silver and 7 bronze.
The teams Gold medallists of the day were Charlie Collyer who narrowly missed out on medals in his 2 previous events but fought hard to make sure he didn’t go away empty handed by winning the Team Sparring; Amelia Myers, fresh back from an outstanding performance at the Scottish Nation Championships also won her Team Sparring event and took a silver medal for her collection in individual sparring; Jessica Giles, Danka Chorowstowska and Laura North competed in the Team Pattern event together and were the easy winners of the division, and Bewdley & Hagley Instructor Katie Billingham won the team’s 6th Gold medal of the day in Individual Patterns.
Silver Medals were won by Alex Kennedy in both Individual Sparring and in Team Sparring, where he partnered his former opponents Matt Bryant and Arran Campbell to fight together and win more medals for the team. In his first competition in over a decade, Matt Bryant did well in all his events, bringing home Bronze in Individual Sparring and Bronze in Individual Patterns giving him a trio of medals for his new collection. Seasoned competitor Arran Campbell was also happy in his individual sparring event to take bronze.
Mother and daughter taekwondo duo Helen and Jessica Giles both collected silver medals for their Individual Patterns performance. Bewdley’s Assistant Instructor Chris Rayment-Bishop joined forces with his team from across the country to perform a world class standard team pattern in the Black Belt division. In a play off for the gold they narrowly missed out on reclaiming the title but were very proud to beat tough competition for the silver medal.
Molly Ashen had her tournament debut after doing so well in her first Taekwondo grading recently. She wowed the judges and was presented with a silver medal for her efforts. Also in their first competition were sisters Mya, Roma and Bella Garcha, the groups youngest competitors. Oldest sister Mya won Silver in Individual Sparring, and Bella a bronze in the smaller height division of the same event. Roma fought very bravely and only just missed out on a medal herself.
Congratulations to super dad Alex Sobainsky who fought hard to take bronze in the Mens Black Belt Sparring event; to ‘Katie’s Angels’ the sparring team consisting of Jessica Giles, Danka Chorowstowska and Laura North who came 3rd in their second event as a team on the day. Danka also won Silver in her Individual Patterns giving her a third win of the day.
The scoring was tough, and the competition was high. Credit and recognition goes to those who worked hard, tried their best, but took just the lessons and not the medals this time. Well done to Ylva Althoff, Robyn Middup-Jones, Arti Shah, Rhianna Sobainsky, Tom and Charlie Smith, Craig Mason, Finlay Evans, Natasha Weston, and Molly-Mae and Emeliana Clarke.
Helping run the tournament were the local Instructors Vince Farquharson, Paul Chesterton, and Terry Davis who worked in an official capacity running the areas. The team was supported on the floor by coaches Georgia Elwell, Arti Shah, Rhianna Sobainsky who’s efforts were invaluable to the team on the day.
Instructor Katie Billingham said “It was such a hard competition. Scoring was very tough, our opponents were very well prepared, so we feel honoured to have come away with so many medals.”
Area Senior Instructor Vince Farquharson said “The team spirit from our group of schools was inspiring and empowering. It was an extremely proud day for all instructors.”
There’s no resting for the diligent students now as the regions clubs now prepare for the North Midlands Championship, Coloured belt and Black belt gradings over the next few months. For more information please contact Vince Farquharson on 07375 119483.
Total Group Medals
Gold 6
Silver 11
Bronze 7
