Yass dominates championships

All students participated in poomsae (patterns) and were keen to see how they would fare in only their second competition for the year. The competition involved clubs from NSW including the South Coast and Sydney as well as clubs from Victoria, South Australia and of course the ACT.

First on the mats in the 7-10 years individual and younger Yellow Belt Division were Ben and Jacob Topping. This was the biggest division of the day with the boys putting on an excellent display to take away the two bronze medals that were on offer.

Later in the day the pair then combined to win gold in the Yellow Belt Pairs Poomsae for 11 years and under. 

Harley Garside in his first competition ever, showed no nerves in the 11-13 years Yellow Belt Male Division to win confidently by one of the largest margins of the day.

Akira Mandla competed in the 7-10 years Blue Belt Division against the same boy he competed against at the South Coast, where he was extremely unlucky not to win the gold going down in sudden death against a more experience opponent, who has won medals at national titles. 

This time the result was reversed. All the hard work and training paid off, with Akira winning in convincing style by a significant margin.

Zeke Groom returned to competition after a long break to put in a good performance to finish fifth in the 11-13 years Blue Belt Division in what was a strong division and the second largest division of the poomsae competition.

Tanu Sudnit who competed in the 11-13 years Red Belt Division continued his winning ways to remain undefeated this year so far.

This was also the case for Maddelyn Savell who won the Female Black Belt Division in the 11-13 year category.

Head Instructor, Master Craig Barrett, was proud of everyone's effort.

"Each member that competed has been working extremely hard in regular classes as well as in our competition class they should be very pleased with what they have achieved this year," he said.

"We are now in preparation for the NSW State Championships which will be a very strong competition as it will also be the selection event for NSW for the nationals titles which will be held in Adelaide in December."

The club would also like to thank Vivienne Barrett who also coached on the day and assists Master Barrett in teaching the students every training session. She is a huge help to the club, and as a former international competitor herself passes on a wealth of experience. 

Anyone interested in training in Taekwondo can contact Master Craig Barrett on 0407 640 361.

Contributed.