Waitakaruru Taekwon-do kick their way to Gold at NZ Champs   29 Jul 2016

Waitakaruru Taekwon-do kick their way to Gold at NZ Champs

Phoenix Auld (middle) with his Gold Medal for Patterns he won representing Waitakaruru Taekwondo at the NZ Champs On the 9 th and 10 th of July the Waitakaruru Taekwon-do club attended the NZ Champs in Tauranga. This event is held annually and featured over 400 of the best Taekwon-do athletes from 115 clubs from around NZ. They competed across four disciplines of Sparring (3 x 2Min rounds of contact fighting), Patterns (a set of prearranged moves), Speciality (jumping high kicks where you have to break a board with a kick up to 2.2 metres in the air) and Power (Breaking a set number of boards with a Punch, Knife Hand Strike and different kicks)

The Hauraki Plains were well represented with seven competitors travelling to the event as part of the Counties-Manukau regional team. This had meant additional training at club in Waitakaruru, training in their own time and travelling to Papakura to train every Sunday for three months leading up to the event.

Leading the results was Liam Corbett who won a Gold medal for Heavyweight men’s
sparring, Gold Medal for Patterns, Gold Medal for Power Breaking and a Gold Medal for Speciality Technique. This earnt Liam the best overall red belt trophy as well as his place in the NZ team which is travelling to the Taekwon-do World Cup in Budapest, Hungary in October this year. The World Cup will feature over 1000 competitors from over 45 countries so the Plains are set to be well represented on the international stage.

Next was Missy Thompson setting a great example for her family by winning Gold in Power, Silver in Patterns and a Bronze in Sparring. Following her mother’s great example Te Aomarama Thompson won a Silver in Power and a Bronze in Speciality. Mother and Daughter have also earnt their place in the NZ team for the World Cup later on this year.

Also competing were Cayden Finn who won a Bronze in Patterns, Phoenix Auld who won Gold in Patterns and Caroline Auld who won Gold in Speciality.

As an amateur sport all of the competitors have to pay their own way so Missy, Liam and Te Aomarama will be fundraising to help get over to Budapest and represent the Hauraki Plains so if you see someone selling raffle tickets please help out and support their effort. For further information and news, you can check the club out on www.facebook.com/calibretkd Jon Sawden the instructor at Calibre Taekwondo is very proud of all the students who competed and the impressive results since opening the club in the Waitakaruru Hall three years ago. He says the Taekwondo is sport the whole family can enjoy together and each person can learn at their own pace. The club trains each Tuesday and Thursday night with juniors from 5pm to 6pm and Seniors from 6pm to 730pm. The first two trainings are free and we encourage people to come and try Taekwon do.

By Jason Davis

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