If there was one thing that we should learn from last weekend, it’s that the TaeKwonDo spirit is very much alive at Imperial College. ICUTKD took its first road trip up to Nottingham University to compete at the British Student TaeKwonDo Federation (BSTF) Nationals on Sunday, the largest inter-university competition for the sport attracting over 300 students from all over the country. Still relatively new to the World TaeKwonDo Federation, entering a competition of this size could have been a daunting task for our club, but it was a task that our team of 9 took on with style.

When we arrived at the venue, far too early for a Sunday morning, the atmosphere was already heating up with competitors getting themselves ready. Unphased by the size of some of the other established university teams and armed with our unbeatable team spirit ICUTKD managed to bring back 7 medals. Success was achieved by Roy Lambert (gold), LiYan Chow (silver), Kristian McCaul (bronze) and Mayghal Vijapura (bronze) in the advanced level sparring category. Mabel Lew won a gold medal in the beginner level sparring category winning her final by an impressive margin of 21 points.

However, the team could not have ended the day on a nicer note thanks to Chris Dancel, who seems to have developed a habit of technical knockouts. After his previous success last month at the 2012 London Open, he not only brought back 2 gold medals for poomsae (patterns) and sparring but also achieved the Master Suh Award. Named after a well loved instructor who sadly passed away in 2010, it is presented to the one competitor for an outstanding performance and exhibiting the tenets of TaeKwonDo - modesty, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit - to the highest level. For all this we thank our instructor, Reza Saberi, for all his encouragement, coaching and the confidence that he has given us over the past months.

With this under our belts, ICUTKD can only look forward to the next challenge ahead.

Firstly I would like to congratulate the Living Well Poomsae team on their fantastic performance in obtaining 1st place in the National Poomsae Championships 2012. I would like to extent my thanks and praise to the families of the participants, members of the club and especially Master Dell for their continuous effort in order to make such success possible.

The Fighterz team took part in the London International Open Championship and obtained 2 gold and 3 bronze medals.

Sami reached the semi finals by defeating his opponent in a match he dominated and narrowly lost in a closely fought match to a tough opponent from Gurumo gaining a bronze medal.

Sam dominated his final match 12-1 to win gold.

Brothers Hassan and Hussain exceeded all expectations with their performances despite experiencing their first ever competition. Hussain showed two outstanding performances to defeat his opponents 12-0 and 17-1 to win gold. Hassan was narrowly defeated in his semi final match 6-4 to gain bronze.

These outstanding performances cheered all involved and turned a cold, snowy day to one filled with warmth and joy.

Photos from the event can be viewed here.

Technical director

Farzad Kootyzadeh

This years Nationals were so large that we've dedicated a seperate page for them here.

Seven Fighterz entered (6 from Tonbridge and 1 from London). The day started well with Abdullah getting Gold and Jayesh getting Silver. This was a perfect start to our last competition of the year.

Ali Pourtaheri representing Livingwell Taekwondo Academy participated for the 2nd time in Hungarian Open. In previous occasions, he succeeded to get to Bronze while this year, he won Gold ahead of Austria and Germany.

Master Derek Sumner, 6^th Dan, Chief Instructor of Livingwell said, “We put together a program for Ali early 2011 and this a very good example of if you follow the path Livingwell designs for your Taekwondo Development, you can reach tremendous goals. This is Ali’s 7^th Individual Gold (he has one in Pair too) and he has been able to rank number 1 in European taekwondo Union’s ranking system for 2011. I wish him more success in his next competition in Portugal in November this year."

Congratulations to all Livingwell Fighterz that attended and fought at the NTC Open Championships

A cracking start to all competitors who showed immense skill, determination and lots of courage in this event. For some this was their first so a huge congratulations to you.  2 Golds and one bronze were achieved at this event.

Future competitions are in the horizon, so  please see our website for details or our facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=149585005079917

Students who are wishing to participate and succeed in future fighting competitions , please enhance your training by attending our fight training sessions in Tonbridge. Three hours of expert tuition from our experienced coaches for a very reasonable cost.

Dates and times of our fight training  can be found on the fighterz section of the livingwell home page www.livingwelltkd.co.uk

Susan Parkins Recently back from Vladivostok Russia where she was Ranked 7th in the world at the world Poomsae championships will be off on her travels again August 12th to lead and coach our 2 University Players challenging for a place at the world university Games in Shenzen China where 220 Athletes from GB will attend this global Event consisting of a total 12,500 world wide will participatents.

Good luck to her and the GB Team .