| Imperial National Championships 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rivermead Leisure Centre Richfield Avenue Reading RG1 8EQ 4th-November-2006 We started our journey at what seems our normal time of travel, yes you guessed it 6.30am.We Left from Westgate on Sea on our journey to Reading in order to compete in the Imperial Open, which is in fact our Annual Competition, which last year was held in Brentford, London, apparently this venue was not available this year, so off to Reading we went! On this occasion we traveled by coach which is a first and is without a doubt the way to travel. We would really like to make sure this is how GTS travel in future as we all had a great time! On arrival at the Rivermead Leisure Centre it was apparent from the beginning that this was to be an extremely well organized tournament, making for a very easy and relaxed atmosphere, enabling everyone to enjoy the day of Taekwon-Do which was soon about to unfold. We had with us a special guest, Leo Schiavoni, who we last saw actively involved within tkd in Argentina during the Jnr World Championships 4 years ago, he then acted as an unofficial interpreter for the English contingent. Leo decided he would help out on the day and run around trying to capture as much video footage as he could, needless to say thanks Leo your a star! We feel we are going from strength to strength, taking 16 Competitors of which we felt had every reason to expect to do well in their divisions, nobody was disappointed we hope! We were extremely impressed with all of the performances on the day, there was not one competitor who did not give 100%.The Competition attracted over 300+ Competitors which made for some great action, and with 29 Clubs attending the event was definitely to be fiercely contended. The day kicked off with the Coloured Belt Jnr Pattern Divisions: Pattern Divisions Snr Blackbelt III Degree Mr Nick Gardner Bronze Jnr Blackbelt II Degree Mr Adam Gardner Silver Jnr Green Belt/Blue Belt Reegan Mathews Gold Nathan Whiteman Silver Ben Baddeley Bronze Sparring Divisions Snr Blackbelt -80Kg Mr Nick Gardner Gold Jnr Male Green Belt/Blue Belt -70Kg Reegan Mathews Gold Nathan Whiteman Silver Jnr Male Green Belt/Blue Belt -63Kg Mark Peachey Gold Tyler Caywood Silver Jnr Male Green Belt/Blue Belt -58Kg Ben Baddeley Bronze Jnr Male Yellow Belt -70Kg Jack Mackenzie Bronze Jnr Male Yellow Belt -48Kg Liam Downer Bronze Jnr Female Yellow Belt -53Kg Victoria Boreham Gold Hayley Pembie Silver The first competitor representing GTS was to be Matthew Chubb who had a huge division to plough his way through and we really thought that he had won gold...until it transpired that the division was split. Matthew had won the yellow tag to yellow belt division, but now had to go against the winner of the Yellow Belt green tag to green belt division. Matthew was very unlucky but put in really good performance. This of course meant that his sparring division would be a similar ordeal, again not to be your day Matthew, maybe next time.We would however, like to take this opportunity, to say that Matthew has been unanimously voted by all his team mates, the most improved student over the last 6 months, well done Matthew The next divisions Included Instructors Mr Nicholas Gardner III Degree Senior Pattern and Mr Adam Gardner II Degree Jnr Pattern which yielded a third and second place, Mr Adam Gardner felt maybe they should have done better, Mr Gardner Snr (Current III Degree Jnr World Pattern Champion) commented Whoops! or something like that! The sparring however saw a different outcome with Mr Gardner Snr competing for the first time in the -80Kg Seniors division giving a solid performance against quality opponents, ending up with a deserving first place.Mr Gardner Jnr (Current -58Kg World Champion) moving up a weight to the -63Kg division in preparation for the 2007 worlds would be paying the price it would seem. We must say however, that the amount of people that felt Adam was unlucky again in this division was really unbelievable alter the result. It makes you conclude that some things are really not meant to happen on the day, no matter what you do! The Green/Blue Belt Pattern division was tremendous with GTS taking all three medal positions with Reegan Mathews, Nathan Whiteman and Ben Baddeley all giving great performances.The day moved on to the coloured belt sparring with the Jnr Green/Blue division -70Kg in which Reegan Mathews picked up his second gold of the day beating Nathan Whiteman into second place after a hard fought final, First and Second place for GTS! Continuing on to the Jnr Green/Blue Belt division -63Kg in which Mark Peachey beat club mate Tyler Cawood into second place after a ferociously fought final. They are all club members and the best of friends, although you would not have believed it on the day, First and Second place for GTS! Closely following was the -70 Kg Jnr Yellow Belt division, Jack Mackenzie who has made tremendous progress was to show great determination and it paid off by earning him a third place in a division where he was giving away a lot of weight, a massive step in the right direction.A sterling performance by Liam Downer -48Kg in the Jnr Yellow Belt division was to follow. He fought against some much taller opponents but showed a true gutsy performance which earned Liam a well deserved Third place, keep it up Liam. The only two female Competitors representing GTS where on next. Victoria Boreham and Haley Pemble where to fight in the -53kg sparring division. Both Fought well in the preliminary rounds and where through to the final. After an exiting final Victoria Boreham just gained the decision over her club mate, meaning another First and Second for GTS! Last but not least we had some great performances from two new comers to competition, namely Eligh Mathews and Jamie Melson who where unlucky not to be placed within the medals. Surprisingly two of our favorites to win medals in this competition did not, Ozkan Yalim and Reece Kinch will have to look forward to putting this right at our next competition, which we feel sure they will. See below for the Official ITA 2006 Results:
"Well done to everyone who competed, especially to those who on this occasion where unlucky not to bring something back. Always remember you are part of the reason why other people have, this is a Team effort and keep doing what you are doing, as far as we are concerned everyone who competed contributed to a job well done" Nick Gardner Report By Mr Geoff Gardner GTS General Secretary |
