BackStoke Gifford TKD Success in Sardinia

8 students & 8 supporters including instructor Miss Burridge travelled to Sardinia, Italy on Sat 29^th Jan 2011 to compete in the Mediterranean open.

The club were joined by over 60 more competitors & supporters from the UK. They all set off together from Stansted airport to arrive in Cagliari Saturday afternoon. After a short transfer to the hotel all competitors registered & weighed in & then freshened up for dinner. We were all treated to a great three course dinner of pasta, pork steak & fruit. It was then up to bed ready for the next day of competition.

The day started well with Miss Burridge competing in 3^rd-5^th Degree patterns & coming away with Gold. Billy Smith then went on to compete in patterns securing silver & a gold in sparring after beating an Italian nemesis that he first met at the British back in 2009. It was then a very long weight for the remaining juniors from the club who didn’t start their quest for medals until late in the afternoon (some early evening!) Ben Baker-Attwood put up a great performance in what was only his second competition as a black belt & narrowly missed out in gaining a medal in both patterns & sparring. Kieran McDermott put in an outstanding performance in the red belt 11-13 year old patterns category by winning gold with pretty much unanimous votes on every pattern.  Callum Brown & Joseph Elson were in the same category as Kieran & both performed excellent patterns but were unfortunately both knocked out by the silver medallist.  Phoebe Grandfield also performed an excellent pattern, but did not progress to a medal placing, however she did put up an excellent performance in sparring & went on to collect a bronze medal for her effort. Kieran, Joseph & Callum all sparred the in same category & picked up some great experience from the differing styles of the Italians & Spanish that will put them in good stead for the future. Callum made it through one round & was very close to picking up a bronze. Both Joseph & Kieran narrowly missed out on winning their fights, but certainly gave an outstanding performance. Ben Chapman put in a very strong performance in both patterns & sparring & after waiting all day long he won a gold in the red belt under 10 patterns & then in the last match of the day narrowly beat Miss Cornwells student from Region 1 to secure another gold. This left the medal tally for the club at 5 gold’s, 1 silver & 1 bronze. A big thank you to Alison May & Billy Smith for helping to coach the clubs students. An outstanding performance after a very long day for some young students in their first international competition.

The next day we were lucky enough to have a day to explore the town of Cagliari & the club enjoyed some great team bonding whilst taking in the sights of the beautiful city, with the aid of our tour guide Glyn Chapman. We all experienced authentic Italian pizza & were lucky to have a stunning day of weather. The day was finished off by some celebration drinks in the hotel bar!

We were all up bright & early on the last day ready to catch the coach to the airport. After the usual waiting around the whole UK team boarded the plane all feeling very happy after a tiring but highly successful weekend. We look forward to our next trip together. A big thank you goes to all the supporters & Ashley Nicholls for organising.