Imperial Ireland in British Championships.
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This year the British Championships were the biggest I.T.F. championships outside of the World Championships. With well over 700 competitors taking part from all over England, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Spain, Italy and Nepal.

The seven Imperial Ireland members who travelled over made a huge impact by winning one Gold, three Silver, and two Bronze medals. Saturday October 9th saw our team arrive early to collect our competitor numbers and with children under 13 years and seniors (35 years +) competing on this first day we were looking forward to making our mark.

First up competing in patterns, was 7 year old Luke Byrne and he performed exceptionally well by progressing through three rounds before losing out to the eventual winner. Rokas Baika was next up and he performed with great confidence, unfortunately he met the winner of the section in round two. Ryan Byrne progressed through two rounds before making his exit. These were brilliant performances because this was the first competition the boys had attended and what a place to do it.

Instructor Mick Flaherty was up next and he secured our first medal, a Silver in 5th Degree Black Belt Patterns. With one medal in the bag, everyone began to relax and the performances in the Sparring reflected this, when Luke secured a well deserved Bronze and Rokas won Silver after some brilliant matches, and Mick picked up another Silverin a very hard encounter. Ryan had a tough section and was unlucky not to get in the medals. Sunday October 10th was the turn of the other three members to take on the opposition. John O'' Connor and Ricky Byrne in Black Belt sections and Owen Beaufils in Coloured Belts.

In Patterns sections, John progressed as far as round two but unfortunately Ricky and Owen were beaten. In Sparring, Owen who was competing in his first competition, fulfilled all expectations by putting in three exceptional performances, winning the Gold medal and becoming the British champion.

The Adult Black Belt sections are the most hotly contested sections at these events, so when Welterweight Ricky stepped onto mats he knew it would be tough going. He fought with great style and aggression and was only beaten by four points in the end and this was his first competition for about six years. John had put in some fantastic performances in Korea a few months back so this was his chance to prove he had made progress since and after some hard fights he secured the Bronze in the Middleweight division.

As part of the Imperial Taekwon Do Association these championships are one of the highlights of our year. Success here and also at the World Championships in Korea last July shows the strength of our Taekwon Do and the talent that lies in our academy. Preparations for next years trip have already started when we hope to have many more competitors travelling over and we will be expecting to take back even more medals.

Written by: Mick Flaherty - 20th October 2010
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