This year’s Southern Championships were held on Saturday 5th October in Paignton. This tournament was also a celebration of Master Dew’s 50 years in TaeKwon-Do!
The Southern is always a friendly tournament; a chance to catch up with other students from our region whom you may only see at tournaments, black belt training sessions or even black belt gradings! Often these local area competitions will be a student’s first foray into the world of martial arts competitions – and for many black belts it may also be their first go at officiating! The officials are all black belts who have undergone training and are giving their time freely to make sure the competition runs as fairly and smoothly as possible. It is always worth remembering that in the heat of a moment!
Our Clubs Results:
Laila Loveridge Girls Green Belt sparring bronze
Chloe Loveridge Girls Green Belt patterns GOLD and sparring bronze
Bella Martin Ladies Blue Belt GOLD patterns and sparring silver, tag team sparring (TBC!) and tag team patterns (also TBC!)
Joseph Cox Boys Red Belt (result to be confirmed!)
Ishmael Bradley Boys Black Belt patterns bronze
If there was a star of the day for me it was blue belt lady Bella Martin (no relation!) from the Southville club, for achieving so many medals on the day! The team events are a great opportunity to join up with other students of your grade from the area – and often long lasting links and friendships are made this way. Bella joined other young women from the South West to achieve medals for both team sparring and team patterns. I hope to see this young lady competing in the black belt divisions one day.