In November HCA’s Taekwondo Club took a trip up to Manchester to compete in the Taekwondo British Champions Competition. 

Led by HCA’s Taekwondo tutor Master Rienzi, club members Ailyn (aged 10), Tom (aged 14), and Sahil (aged 14) entered in both days of thrilling competitions.  

We caught up with parent Jade who went on the trip to find out more. 

“My daughter Ailyn has been coming to the Taekwondo classes for 2 years and the other boys are long-standing members.  After a lot of organising and support from HCA, we headed up on the train on Friday night, staying in a hotel ready to compete early the next day. 

First-day Poomsae 

The first day we got there at 8 AM in the morning and was amazed at the scale of the competition, people came from all over the world.  

They had a warm-up and a weigh-in.  The first day of competition was what they called Poomsae, where they do defence-and-attack motions.  

The fighting is not only based on the belt colour but also weight. Ailyn was in the top 5 in her category for patterns so she got a silver medal.  Tom received a bronze medal for the patterns too. 

Sunday Sparring 

Day two was sparring day and my goodness we were both excited and anxious! There was a lot of things we found out that day that was a new experience for us, like a lot of people had been competing for years and also we didn’t know that a blue belt can fight with a red belt and even a black belt! 

Sahil who is a blue belt fought with a boy who had travelled from Jordan and a black belt.  Sahil won, which was an incredible achievement.  

Once you win you move onto a second fight with another winner of the same weight.  

By pure chance, Sahil had to fight with Tom.  It was bittersweet for him to fight with a friend. Tom won the round and got a gold medal.  Later Sahil shared with me about the highs and lows of his competing, “things happen for a reason, I won and lost and that is only one step for myself to be as great as I can”.  

Next was Ailyn’s turn to fight, she is a yellow belt and due to some of the scheduled competitors not being there they paired her with a girl who not only a green belt but a champion in a higher weight category! 

The fight was a tough one, but Ailyn didn’t give up, showing a lot of heart and resilience with the referee calling time a minute before.   I asked my daughter how she felt inside when she stepped onto the floor “I have learned that the first thing I have to fight is my fears”.  They gave her a special award for her courage. 

The experience was a huge amount of learning for everyone. Tom told me “I really enjoyed going to the competition. It helped me to improve because I had something to work towards”.   

Working together 

Throughout the weekend everyone who went worked as a team, including travelling and eating after the event – there was such a positive feeling in the group.  

This was their first competition and now they are inspired to work towards the next one.  We really appreciated having Master Rienzi there too and give thanks to HCA for supporting the trip.’  

To find out more about our Taekwondo classes and try out a taster class for £5 click here