On Saturday 15th October, eleven competitors from Loughborough Students Taekwondo entered the GTUK British Taekwondo Championships – the club’s first competition of the academic year.
First up was the colour belt patterns, with Emma Corfield, Carrie Wei and Reece Franklin winning silver, gold and bronze in their respective categories. This was followed by a fantastic display during colour belt sparring, during which Alex Harrington and Carrie Wei got Bronze, Gareth Day got Silver, and Emma Corfield won Gold – that ensured all the colour belts came away with medals.
The second half of the day was dedicated to the black belts. The patterns came first, with Graham Peacock doing fantastically and gaining a Bronze medal, whilst a spectacular final from James Wallis saw him take home the Gold medal. The final competition of the day was black belt sparring, with some world class examples. Superb performances from Tek Simkhada and Graham Peacock saw them take Silver and Bronze respectively, ensuring that everyone from Loughborough who competed came home with a medal! Not only is this an amazing feat, but the team also contained two industrial placement year students returning to represent the university.
All in all, it was an incredibly successful day, with a total of eleven medals from eight competitors! This fantastic medal haul will hopefully be replicated when Loughborough Students Taekwondo host the GTUK University Champs here in Loughborough in December.
Many thanks and congratulations to everyone who competed, Natasha Hadlow for judging and Mr Andrew Holmes for instructing us throughout the years.
By Alex Ward Loughborough Students Taekwondo Vice Chair
