South of the border success for young GMAC competitors
Our team of competitors embarked on a 800 mile round trip over the first weekend in July, first travelling to Cardiff, Wales to compete at the ITF Open Welsh on Saturday, before heading back on the road to make it to Birmingham for the ITF Union Sparring GrandPrix the following day.
First up was the ITF Open Welsh hosted by Mr. Neil Ernest VI Degree and NE-Sport Taekwon-Do Club at the Cardiff House of Sport, an event which had twice been postponed due to covid, everyone was excited to get on the mats for the hotly anticipated event. We had 14 competitors from GMAC making the journey to Cardiff, and all returned with medals, no mean feat for the standard on display at the event. With some gutsy performances over the course of the day, everyone gave their all on the mat, and we couldn’t have been happier with the results. As well as all the students medalling, our small travelling team took 4th place overall club, in amongst some exceptionally larger clubs, and teams.
ITF OPEN WELSH RESULTS
GOLD’S x 11
Abhiram Rao (Sparring), Ren Smith (Sparring), Oliver Crooks (Sparring), James Vickers (Sparring), Declan McAvoy (Sparring), Karly Rodger(Sparring & Special Technique), Emilia Singleton (Sparring & Special Technique), Ella Park (Sparring) and Jaimie Singleton (Sparring).
SILVER’S x 7
Alfie Crooks (Pattern & Sparring), Owen McIlvaney (Sparring), Oliver Crooks (Pattern), Declan McAvoy (Pattern) and Sarah McIlvaney (Sparring & Special Technique).
BRONZE’S x 5
Ren Smith (Patterns), Oliver Crooks (Special Technique), Mhairi Crookston (Patterns) and Lorna Ferguson (Pattern & Sparring).
As well as the individual results noted above, two of our youngest female competitors won Joint Overall <7 years Female Competitor on the day, with 2 Golds each: Karly Rodger & Emilia Singleton.
Thank you also to our Umpires: Master John McIlvaney VII Degree, Mr. John Munro V Degree, Mrs. Lorna Singleton III Degree and Mr. Lennon McAvoy I Degree, who helped make the tournament the success it was.
Photo’s from the Welsh event are on our facebook page here.
On to day two of events, with a 200 mile hop further up the M6 to Birmingham for the ITF Union Grand Prix, which was predominantly a sparring event, with all competitors having the chance to take part in sparring leagues (everyone spars everyone in the division), meaning the winners were the best of the best on the day. Again each of the competitors who took part earned medals to bring back to Scotland with them, after a long day of competition.
ITF UNION GRAND PRIX RESULTS
GOLD’s x 6
Ren Smith (Sparring), Oliver Crooks (Sparring), Jaimie Singleton (Sparring), Declan McAvoy (Sparring), James Vickers (Sparring) and Lorna Ferguson (Power).
SILVER’s x 4
Alfie Crooks (Sparring), Lorna Ferguson (Sparring), Sarah McIlvaney (Sparring) and Owen McIlvaney (Sparring).
BRONZE’S x 2
Abhiram Rao (Sparring) and Emilia Singleton (Sparring).
Overall the club came in 3rd Best Club with 11 competitors taking part in the event.
Photo’s from the event in Birmingham can be found here.
