 I’d been training for this competition for weeks and was worried I’d been rather rash in spending the money as I was the only colour belt in our club to be going; but the Easter holidays whizzed round really quickly and before I knew it, it was time for me and my instructor Alan Jackson and team-mate Warren Vice (both of whom are world champions, no need to feel insecure then!) to pile into my little Renault Clio along will all our kit and bomb down the motorway to catch the tour bus at Dover and travel to Switzerland. Eighteen agonising hours later having contorted myself into socially acceptable sleeping positions on the bus, we had climbed up into the mountains to the snow resort of Davos. It was a beautiful place to see, there was still some snow on the ground and the houses appeared straight from a Christmas card.
After witnessing some hilarious attempts at snowboarding by my team mates, I declined as I knew I’d wrap myself around a tree, the competition started a couple of days later. There were about 500 competitors, roughly a quarter of the amount at the TAGB British Championships in November. They came from the usual Tae Kwon Do nations as such as, Germany, Holland, Poland, Russia and bizarrely, Argentina. There was a mixture of styles including Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Kickboxing as well as some Kung Fu patterns. Halfway through the competition there was a demonstration of some Kung Fu forms that were both with and without weapons. These were skilful and interesting to watch but what really caught people’s attention was the young woman performing a Tai Chi pattern with two red fans, who was both beautiful and graceful in her fluid movements.
When the competition finally got going after one of the longest opening ceremonies I’ve experienced, I got called up for patterns. Unfortunately, I was first up which virtually guarantees you a row of average scores, never mind, but I was very impressed with the standard of the Karate katas; they were performed with both power and precision by the first and second places and it showed me that the standard of the opposition was going to be strong and I was going to have to up the ante to get the place I desired in the sparring. I didn’t get to spar until about seven in the evening by which time I was feeling hungry, tired and irritable; an excellent combination with which to meet your opposition! Being a red stripe at the time, I was doing point stop and the first thing I noticed was that the standard was really good, my opponents were sharp and fast and you really had to choose your moments carefully to pick off your points. Fortunately, I managed to get into the final which consisted of two-two minute rounds. My opponent from Liechtenstein put on her 12 ounce boxing gloves and I gulped as I trotted onto the fighting area thinking, ‘ok, so that’s how it’s going to be.’ I needn’t have worried; she was very controlled in her techniques and was also very good. I faired well in the first round, we were neck and neck but her hands got the better of me in the second and she won 10:4. Well, I got a second which I was quietly satisfied with and I learned an awful lot. Alan Jackson, my instructor, was fantastic in his support of me as well as Warren who was also desperately yelling at me to use my hands more! One thing I noticed during the sparring was the difference competing at altitude. I worked really hard on my fitness for this event and I knew I was in pretty good shape, so my breathing was ok but being that far above sea level made me really thirsty after the first minute or so. Something to remember for anyone else competing a couple of thousand feet above sea level, bring plenty of water with you!
For the rest of the competition, all of the British squad members performed well, with each member gaining a first place in the sparring. However, the performance that really caught my attention was that of young Christopher Welsh from Scunthorpe fighting in the boy’s lightweight division. Christopher fought several rounds, dominating the opposition with his mature and diverse style. He moved around the area and manipulated his opponent with ease and his spinning kicks, often hitting his target precisely on the head, were quite breathtaking. Watching this young man was quite fascinating and his composure throughout, even when one German opponent’s team were complaining and whipping themselves into a frenzy over a minor point, was all to his credit. Christopher is already world champion in his division, let’s see how far he can take this success, my guess is that he will be around at the top for many years to come.
The grand champion event was the one I was really looking forward to watching. Anyone in the first three places in any of the sparring events qualified to enter, although I managed to avoid taking part myself as I knew I had had enough for one day and when I witnessed the women’s division, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw what I would have been up against. It was quite brutal, most of the rounds seemed to consist of super heavy weights lamping each other and I heard a few comments of ‘where’s the Tae Kwon Do here?’ Quite. However, our own Tamsin Clark, Ladies British team member in middleweight and winner of her own division that day, acquitted herself well gaining a very respectable third and considering some of the beastly opposition, one couldn’t wish for more.
The highlight of these championships had to be the end of the men’s grand champion event. There were some exciting bouts but the final between Warren Vice and Alan Jackson was thrilling. I see these two spar in training all the time and once before in a competition but this was something else. Witnessing both Warren’s technical precision and sheer nerve and Alan’s graceful style pitted against each other was an event that left the onlookers captivated. This of course left me with the quandary of who was I going to shout for but I kept quiet; when in Switzerland do as the Swiss and stay neutral. Warren eventually won but we were all pleased to see that we gained a British 1, 2, 3 with Alan second and Sean Rogers of Chelmsley Wood gaining third place. Meanwhile, all of this was being filmed by Swiss television and it was later when we were all celebrating in a bar we saw Warren and Alan’s final on screen whilst we were drinking! We eventually left the venue at eleven o’clock in the evening after having listened to one of the most interminable award ceremonies and speeches I’ve heard. I’m sorry if I sound rude or ungrateful here but at the end but we were all tired, hungry and desperate to get back to our hotel to get ready to go out and celebrate. Next time, please give out the trophies during the competition just after the match, some families and teams had long journeys back and wanted to get home, many of them didn’t have the opportunity to collect their trophies and missed out on their reward.
At the end of the evening, during the post-competition party, Warren received an additional award for best technician, so that made our trio in a Clio a collection of 6 trophies in total. The first and second awards that Warren and Alan won for grand champion were huge, they weren’t trophies but furniture! This did leave me with one glaring problem.
How on earth was I going to fit them all into my car?
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