This weekend saw over 1500 competitors from across the UK travel to Worcester in order to compete in the 2019 British Championships – it was also the LARGEST SQUAD West Midlands Tae Kwon-Do have taken to a tournament in over 3 years!
The British Championships is an annual competition hosted by the TAGB and it sees competitors from all over the country including the Welsh, Scottish and English Squads. This is the last competition of the year, and normally the biggest – with this year being no exception.
British Championships also sees the award presentations for all senior black belts, best in black belt gradings and recognition awards – West Midlands TAGB Tae Kwon-Do want to say a special congratulations to Maya from Wales and Briegan from the South West for being awarded best in Grading for Dan Gradings 2019. Both of you are an inspiration to your fellow Tae Kwon-Do community.
Now, onto our competitor and results! Not all of our students won a medal – but all instructors are just as proud of the students who entered and students who won. It is so hard to take that first step to enter a competition and the respect and dedication our students have shown is the proudest achievement to our instructors.
Tore Lamont: Black Belt patterns (BRONZE Medal) & Black Belt Lightweight Sparring
Warren Didlock: Black Belt Destruction – Hand Technique
Katie Billingham: Black Belt patterns, 5th Degree & Above (GOLD Medal)
Amelia Myers: Girls Colour Belt Sparring & Girls Colour Belt Tag Team (GOLD Medal)
Lauren Pope: Ladies Colour Belt Patterns, Ladies Colour Belt Sparring (BRONZE Medal) & Ladies Colour Belt Tag Team (GOLD Medal)
Katerina Komorova: Ladies Colour Belt Sparring (GOLD Medal) & Ladies Colour Belt Tag Team (GOLD Medal)
Reece Howard: Boys Colour Belt Patterns & Boys Colour Belt Sparring
Connor Magee: Boys Colour Belt Sparring
Georgina Moore: Black Belt patterns & Black Belt power test (SILVER Medal)
Jon Moore: Black Belt patterns & Black Belt power test (BRONZE Medal)
Ben Moore: Black Belt patterns & Black Belt power test
Cody Sellance: Boys Colour Belt Sparring
Oliver Blood: Boys Colour Belt Sparring
Jade Winston: Ladies Black Belt Sparring
Jordan Winston: Mens Colour Belt Sparring (BRONZE Medal)
Aiden Bishop: Boys Colour Belt Sparring (BRONZE Medal)
Andrew Squire: Mens Colour Belt Sparing
Arran Campbell: Mens Colour Belt Sparring (SILVER Medal)
West Midlands TAGB Tae Kwon-Do would like to take special time to consider some of the students above who showed excellent determination and integrity throughout the competition. Firstly, instructor Miss Katie Billingham – who has gone from strength to strength competing against 4th Degree and higher Black Belts in order to gain GOLD in patterns – even against highly regarded squad members. Katie showed such a fight and this is her 2nd GOLD medal in individual patterns, very impressive.
Next, Tore Lamont – Tore, although not winning a medal in sparring had an extraordinary fight. This was Tore’s first competition as a black belt, and it wasn’t easy. In his 1st fight, Tore was paired against a highly experienced 4th Degree Black Belt. The fight was fantastic – going to an extension as there was no clear and obvious winner – and eventhough Tore didn’t win this fight he certainly made a name for himself in the black belt world.
Finally, young Katerina Komorova from Russia. Katerina is only 16 years old and has traveled to the UK by herself as part of a student exchange programme. During this time she decided to train with and compete under the guidance of World Master Vince Farquharson. Katerina comes from a different style of fighting – and even had a broken finger on the day – but this didn’t stop her from winning DOUBLE GOLD! Katerina started off light but soon got into the swing of things and showed such amazing leg techniques to clearly win all her fights without dispute. World Master Vince Farquharson commented “Katerina is such a young fighter – she’s come across to the UK and taken her own imitative to train and compete – it’s fantastic to see. Russia has a different style of fighting than the UK and despite this, Katerina did amazingly and won all her fights. She is a pleasure to teach and she has been unbelievably humble during her training with Dudley TAGB Tae Kwon-Do. She will be missed, but we wish her all the best in her fighting career in Russia.”
All West Midlands TAGB instructors are so proud with this outcome – the day could not have gone any better. We hope to be bringing this strong squad and more into 2020! See you all next year!
