HSTS MEMBERS WORLD CHAMPIONS
ISABELLE BAKER JUNIOR FEMALE UNDER 16’S WORLD CHAMPION 2014
ITF World Taekwon-Do Championships Rome 2014
Master Glenn Horan took seven members of the Unified Taekwondo Association (UTA) to Rome with the UKITF team UK to compete in the ITF World Championships 2014. The fasting squad all weighed in successfully on Tuesday morning and celebrated with pizzas and pastas after seeing some of the sights. Tuesday evening began training for the team competitions. After further team training on Wednesday morning the UTA students went for a short run followed but pattern and sparring training to start gearing up for the competition start on Thursday.
Team UK travelled to the Arena Thursday morning Where the tournament got underway at 10am with the Junior patterns where Elliott Callahan won a bronze medal in the under 16s male 2nd degree patterns. The sparring then got under way where after some tough sparring Alexander Burton earned a bronze medal in the under 14s male sparring light weight. Isabelle Baker won a tough first round fight and went on to win an all UK final to become the under 16s sparring middle weight world champion.
The senior competition got underway on Friday where William Southern had a tough fight in the senior male welter weight sparring where he showed good spirit but unfortunately went out to a great opponent. Patrick Dion-Fehily won his first round tie in adult male 2nd degree patterns but didn’t make it any further.
Saturday started with two very close fights for Leanne Vaton and Kelly Rose in their respective divisions, hyper weight and welter weight adult female sparring, which could have gone either way right to the bell. The adult male sparring welter weight followed where Patrick Dion-Fehily went out to win and won the first round comfortably to progress to the quarter finals. Patrick fought well progressing to a close semi-final fight which he had to retire from due to injury but came away with a well-earned bronze medal. The junior female special technique competition got underway where Isabelle Baker qualified with a great jumping high front kick but missing the jumping high turning kick by just millimetres kept her out of the medals.
The team tournaments followed with Kelly Rose and Isabelle Baker competing in the adult female and junior female UK teams respectively. They both won a bronze medals in female team patterns. The team tournaments concluded on Sunday with Isabelle Baker winning bronze with the UK team in junior female team power and Kelly Rose winning bronze with the UK team in adult female team power and team special technique.
Congratulations to all those that competed and to the medal winners.
Medal summary
Isabelle Baker Junior female under 16 middle weight sparring GOLD
“WORLD CHAMPION”
Isabelle Baker Junior female team patterns BRONZE
Isabelle Baker Junior female team special technique BRONZE
Alexander Burton Junior male under 14 light weight sparring BRONZE
Elliott Callahan Junior male under 16 2nd degree patterns BRONZE
Patrick Dion-Fehily Adult male welter weight sparring BRONZE
Kelly Rose Adult female team patterns BRONZE
Kelly Rose Adult female team power BRONZE
Kelly Rose Adult female team special technique BRONZE
A special note also goes to Grand Master Choi Trevor Nicholls who was promoted to 9th degree grand master, given the Choi family name and given a special medal from the Choi family for his dedication to Taekwon-Do. Congratulations.
All those that competed showed a high level of Taekwon-Do and did themselves and the UK proud. The training for the British open in October begins now as the qualifiers for the Europeans in 2015 begins.
By John Halter IIIrd dan
Special thanks to Mr John Halter for assisting with the coaching. G.Horan
