Lesley Jackson jumps on a plane to the European Taekwondo Championships and sees some surprising performances, which certainly made up for the over-priced hotel she stayed in.
European Taekwondo Championships
26th and 27th April in Cork, Ireland
Off to the emerald isle we were for the European Taekwondo Championships in April held at the Neptune Stadium in Cork. The land of green fields, clover and Guinness provided the TAGB circus with their next major open championships since the Worlds last year in Birmingham. Mind you, after being ripped off by the suspiciously friendly taxi-driver and arriving at the grand-sounding stadium one’s heart couldn’t help but sink when being dropped off at a small and grey looking sports hall with a miserable looking queue waiting to get in.
After the excessively long wait to get into the sports hall, registering and paying the 50 Euros to enter all events the black belt adults’ event got going on time and was run efficiently. Although there was not a huge field of competitors, it felt more like an area tournament than an international event, the standard was very high with some surprise performances in store. Representatives from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Holland, Poland, Germany and Switzerland with the majority of competitors coming from the UK. Although it is patriotically pleasing to see the TAGB dominate in the international events, it would be nice to see more countries and UK associations taking place to really push the TAGB teams to make the competition more of a nail-biter. Then we could really see who the best at Taekwondo are and everyone gets a chance to slug it out.
Black Belt Round Up
The black belt event was definitely a day for the English Ladies’ team as they won every individual sparring event with some of the most ferocious semi-contact fighting I’ve seen in quite a while. Without any doubt, the division to watch that day was the lightweight ladies’ division with the most exciting sparring final of the competition. England’s Normi Jamalludin and Scotland’s Katie Elliot battled it out for two tense rounds as they were equally matched to a very high standard. Although diminutive in size, their Taekwondo ability shouted volumes; particularly in the second round as they both fought to near exhaustion. One could almost feel the impact when these two ladies clashed on the mat but it was Normi Jamalludin who prevailed with her first international win. Although Miss Jamalludin has only been competing for the TAGB for the past couple of years, her progress has been steadily improving culminating in this win in the Europeans. Watch out for Normi in the future as this will not be the last medals won by this energetic fighter. Other performances of note were Englands’ Tamsin Clarke in Ladies’ Middleweight, Lynsay Williams in Lightheavy and Claire Sharples in Ladies Heavyweight as they all won their divisions in the Ladies individual sparring.
Meanwhile, in the men’s event, the competition panned out according to plan. The most interesting final to see was in the Men’s Lightheavy division as we saw Chris Beanland and Warren Vice fight. Warren Vice, current world champion and at least twenty years younger than his fellow finalist was challenged by Beanland’s experience but won in the end by revving up to the gear that has won him countless international titles in the past. England’s Andrew Deer and Tyrrell Belony also put in skilful performances in the middle and welterweight divisions respectively with one of the most interesting fights coming from the men’s team event as Belony and fellow Welsh counterpart Matt Jackson fought in similar leggy style, sometimes getting their limbs entangled, in an interesting coming together of styles.
Names for the Future
Surprise performances came from young Welsh fighter Jade Johnson, winner of the Ladies’ Cadet Middleweight division as she displayed an impressive and dramatic step up in performance. Laura Morgan of England was defeated in the final but again, the skill displayed by these two young ladies give us something to keep an eye out in the future. Miss Jones also put in a determined performance in the Ladies team event, beating England’s more experienced middleweight. Jade’s win was key to Wales winning the Ladies team sparring.
This tournament was an interesting international step to the British Open Championships due to be held in October which should be quite a spectacle as it will be the TAGB 25th Anniversary. Let’s hope they have some interesting and diverse performances in store.
Lesley Jackson jumps on a plane to the European Taekwondo Championships and sees some surprising performances, which certainly made up for the over-priced hotel she stayed in.
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