UKITF Region 7 Vs 100 ROUND SPARATHON

 

On Saturday 30th June 2012, whilst most of the country spent their morning having a lie-in, Thornbury TKD of region 7 hosted a fund raising event. 23 brave and ambitious taekwondo practitioners from the areas of Thornbury, Stoke Gifford and Berkhamsted took on the challenge of doing 100, yes, ONE HUNDRED!, x1 minute rounds of CONTINUOUS FIGHTING. We had a wide range of participants; male and female, young and not so young, local and world contenders. What a great turn out!

The 100 round Sparathon kicked off at 9.30am. Our music man blasted out the music! Our time keepers set the stopwatches. Mr. Buxton shouted GO! GO! And before we knew it everything was in full swing!

Mr. Buxton threw the participants in the deep end and had them sparring right from the word GO! Their warm up comprised of 10 intense rounds of one-for-one sparring. One-for-one sparring is where each fighter takes it in turn to throw an offensive technique, the purpose being to build speed and raise the heart rate so there is a continual rapid exchange of kicks and punches.

25 ROUNDS LATER… the participants had their first sip of water, at which point many of them had thought they had bitten off more than they could chew! Many awkward, worried laughs filled the room at the realization of how big a challenge this was proving to be! But everyone persevered and soldiered on, demonstrating a true Taekwon – Do spirit!

50 ROUNDS LATER… and the first sigh of relief was felt! Having reached the massive half way mark, the initial challenge of 100 rounds was becoming more realistic and more achievable with each and every round! With only 50 rounds to go everyone was eager to complete the next 50 rounds and hit the impressive total of 100 rounds!

75 ROUNDS LATER… the dojang still continued to fill with sweating bodies, the ‘matured’ men had already been through 3 shirt changes EACH! Underneath the burn in the feet and the exhaustion of the body… a little excitement was still felt in the room with everyone being only 25 rounds away from completion – we reached fever point!

100 ROUNDS LATER… and the ambitious target of 100 rounds was finally reached!! SUCCESS!! A massive sigh of relief and accomplishment filled the room!! The younger participants were each presented with a certificate of recognition of having achieved an astonishing 100 rounds of fighting!! ONE ounce of energy remained in each participant… this ONE ounce of energy was used to put on our best smiles in the picture below… Following the photo, many collapsed to the floor before trying to walk again ;).

 

 

 

The 100 round Sparathon was a HUGE success and Thornbury TKD would like to thank all those who made it possible. Thornbury TKD can proudly say they raised OVER £700, all of which is going into the UK ITF funds to sponsor England’s top competitors who are competing at the World Taekwondo Championships 2012, in Ottawa (Canada) this August 2012!

And now for the THANK YOUS

1.    THANK YOU MR. BUXTON for organising the event!

2.    THANK YOU PARTICIPANTS for making the event such a huge success!

3.    THANK YOU SPONSORS for kindly and generously donating money for this wonderful cause!

4.    THANK YOU SPECTATORS for your encouragement from round 1 and even 100 rounds later!

5.    THANK YOU HELPERS (and to mention a few)... for time keeping, counting rounds, others taking photos, giving sparring tips and Miss Burridge for providing the music