OVER 2,000 hopefuls from every continent of the world, including six from Bude, travelled to Arena Birmingham last month to vie for titles in the largest tae kwon-do championship the UK has ever seen.

Hosted by the Taekwondo Association of Great Britain (TAGB) and held on Saturday,?July 21 and Sunday, July 22, 22 countries put their competitors forward in an exciting selection of events in the Tae Kwon-Do International World Championships.

The two-day tournament saw some of the world’s best fighters, patterns technicians, and destruction champions come together to battle it out for the biggest prize in the sport.

Ioanna Giannakidou, who is originally from Greece, took this challenge on in spite of it being only her second competition.

Heather Sirmon, with daughter Evelyne, and Rachel Stratton, with her daughters Martha and Millie, had more completion experience but nothing on this scale!

Instructors Guy and Lisa Southard also attended to help officiate as welfare officers, looking after junior competitors and vulnerable adults.

Ioanna placed 0.2 of a mark outside a bronze medal position for her pattern Choong-Moo, which has a difficult flying side-kick in it. In the team sparring, her team were close to bronze, but the opposing team had longer legs and lots more experience.

Ioanna started the individual sparring group in an unlucky position as the computer draw meant she had to fight an extra round to everyone else — as well as being the most inexperienced — but this only fired her up and she powered through to finally get her bronze!

Martha, Millie and Evelyne also placed close to medal positions in their group. They came away with a great sense of achievement at having been part of such a huge event, and made some new friends on the ringside. Rachel and Heather found themselves in a similar position: happy to know that they came close to taking a medal home for their patterns at an international event. Heather had also signed up for sparring, which she had tried at a national competition previously – and found herself also coming home with a bronze medal.

Instructor, Guy Southard, said: “I consider myself lucky to have such amazing students. They apply themselves to training and taking on new challenges. Having a couple of medals is brilliant of course, but I am honestly most pleased with their attitudes and effort. They are great ambassadors for the art.”

Guy and Lisa teach at Bude, Okehampton and Plymouth (collectively known as ‘BOP’). For more information about training, call Guy on 07771863890.