RL_Taekwondo

April 21st saw our annual pilgrimage to Kent for Kam Bains Kick It 2002 Open Taekwon-do Tournament.

It was a full house when we arrived & it kicked off straight away. This year's event was the biggest to date & all the divisions were extremely full. The day started off as usual with the patterns events. Showing some fine technical form, Jessica Mcleod won a silver medal & Kanai Brand won the gold in the junior patterns divisions. In the adult patterns, Lyndsey Reynolds won bronze, David Lane, in his first foray into competition won silver & Parvez Sultan won a gold in their respective divisions. Instructor Stuart Anslow won a bronze in the populated black belt divisions, after drawing on two consecutive occasions.

With the patterns over it was onto the sparring. The black belts set the trend for the day & Vik G was a good trend to follow winning the Men's Middleweight black belt division. This result inspired the students to go on & win some more medals. Instructor Stuart Anslow was unfortunate on the day to take the eventual winner of the men's black belts lightweight division to a draw & losing by a 1 point majority in extra time. Dev Patel stormed to Gold very convincingly, out-pointing all that stood in his way, fast side & hook kicks were on the menu with Dev. Lloyd Lewis fought well, his game plan of drawing his opponents into a counter attack trap worked superb & he gained a silver medal. Lloyd lost out on the gold only because he had to retire in the final due to sustaining an injury from an illegal kick. Justin Goh, also competing for the first time gave a convincing display to take bronze in his division, fighting his 3rd place fight-off with an injured ankle. Mariskha Visagie gained a bronze & a sore nose in the ladies division, fighting well with some fast hand techniques.

The medal haul was finally complete, when the Rayners Lane Jaguars Team, consisting of Farid Ahmad, Jessica Mcleod & Dev Patel, won a bronze in the team sparring event. The team drew together to gain their position & gave a fine performance of technique, speed, & teamwork.

Ade Oduniaya, Colin Avis & Farhad Ahmad also competed on the day & were unfortunate not to place but gained valuable experience & other lessons from competing, as you always do.

Once again Rayners Lane Academy proved itself against all comers, in both the technical & physical aspects of Taekwon-do. Students did the Academy proud once more & returned home after a long day.

It was good to see some quality support on the day from both family & friends of students. A big thank you to Gurshram for taking loads of photos, to Devs parents, Colins dad, Lyndseys friend & Lloyds mum & little Joe for supporting the Academy & ferrying students to & from the competition. It is always much apprechiated.

For the results from this event click here

For the photo`s click here