Huddersfield University Taekwondo club (HUTKD) have fought their way to success with an impressive medal haul at the Welsh Open Championships.

Jay Jackson, the founder and outgoing president of the Taekwondo Club said: “I wish to congratulate our team on their medal count at the Championships; it makes me so proud to witness the growth of our club.

“From what was merely a conversation between the instructors and I, the club has become a reality and it is an honour to train with such talented and committed students.

“To watch them compete and become gold medallists made all of the hard work worth it. Congratulations to you all, it was thoroughly deserved.”

The team, consisting of four students from HUTKD alongside three members of Huddersfield TKD, made the lengthy journey to Cardiff to compete for medals across three categories.

Patterns – demonstrating ones designated attacking and defensive movements against one or more imaginary opponents.

Sparring – semi-contact sparring rounds using a points system. Using ITF approved footpads and gloves to achieve the most points using attacking techniques to the head and the body.

Power Test – demonstrating the correct use of multiple attacking techniques by the breaking of one or more boards.

Results

Chermagne Barnachea (8^th Kup/Yellow Belt)

• Patterns: Gold
• Sparring: Silver

Beth Robinson (8^th Kup/Yellow Belt)

• Patterns: Bronze
• Sparring: Gold

Jay Jackson (6^th Kup/Green Belt)

• Patterns: Silver
• Sparring: Bronze

Vishal Seeburrun (4^th Kup/Blue Belt)

• Patterns: Gold
• Power: Gold

Miss Karen Smith (IV Dan)

• Sparring: Gold

Exceeding Expectations

Taekwondo Club’s debut year has exceeded all expectations in regards to the intake of new students, organisation, and engagement with the Students’ Union.

The club stems from the Huddersfield TKD School located in Paddock; a small yet charismatic training environment striving to expand and help the local community learn the art of self-defence.

Huddersfield TKD celebrated their ten year anniversary by partnering up with the University to spread the word of the art throughout the student community.

As of September 2014, the University club was set in motion and has so far exceeded its target membership – doubling their overall student attendance rate and creating awareness by conducting free self-defence sessions on campus specifically for women.

Under the tutorage of Huddersfield’s finest instructors, who also have roots within the University of Huddersfield, former graduate, European champion and 5^th dan international instructor Mr Johnnie Chan (V) and senior lecturer and 2^nd dan assistant instructor Mrs Elizabeth Dobson (II) have devoted their personal time in helping their students develop their skills and persevere both inside and outside the Dojang.

The new recruits have shown incredible progress throughout the course of the academic year, transforming from inexperienced white belts to national medallists.

Most notably, second year students and newly elected committee members Chermagne Barnachea and Beth Robinson have progressed at an impressive rate from beginners to yellow belts and on to gold medallists within the duration of just nine months.

If you’re interested in joining Taekwondo, you can visit the club’s webpage; follow them on Twitter or like their page on Facebook.