London International Taekwondo Championships

 

Stoke UTA Taekwondo came away with a stunning thirteen International medals at the British International held at the K2 Centre Gatwick London on Sunday 10th July.

 

With an eleven strong team, Coach Peter Johnson was delighted with his team’s performance. Once again, following on from the recent success at the BTCB Nationals, the team have performed well at what is now the premier event in the country and new stars have been thrust forward to podium medals in London.

 

Teams from Israel, Germany, Belgium, France, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Spain to mention just some of the world's Taekwondo talent were all competing in London.

 

The Stoke team were fielding both their fighting team and forms team at this event with some new competitors and seasoned veterans all looking for podium positions. The outcome for the day was phenomenal, with four gold medals, three silver medals and six bronzes in both fighting and forms. Coach Peter Johnson aged 56 was first up in the senior masters forms section, in a strong field with a world bronze medallist in the section he came away with a good bronze to add to his growing collection.Then his daughter Bethany Johnson aged 14 from Sneyd Green, already British National Cadet Champion, came away with another bronze in a strong field, being beaten by a good competitor from Spain.

 

Next up was James Beardmore from Sandbach. James, competing in the senior 1 forms section, did a great performance narrowly missing on gold and came away in the final with a well earned silver national title. Then young Bradley Bergamini from Ash Bank came away with a bronze medal in the junior boys' forms section.

 

Then a superb gold medal from Anya Hynes from Sandbach in the senior women’s forms section, in a stunning performance to clinch gold in the final!

 

The golds kept coming with Julia Mason from Crewe in the senior women's A class section, securing gold in her final to add to her gold from the Irish Open last month.

 

Stoke UTA Taekwondo National Medalists

 

Next up was young Chloe Macdonald Dunn from Alsager who, after getting through to the final, narrowly lost out and attained a silver medal in the junior girls' forms section.

 

First up in the fighting section was young Joshua Barnett from Ash Bank. Joshua, getting through to the semi-finals, came up against a very strong opponent from Doncaster, but secured a good bronze medal. Then newcomer, Bjorn Domonick from Werrington, in his first ever competition in the junior boys' section going through to the final, came away with another silver medal! Bjorn then being asked to compete again in another section, against another opponent secured a bronze in an additional fight, a great effort and first time appearance for Stoke.

 

Then came the performance of the day with Peter Kenvyn, who travels to Stoke from Liverpool to train at Stoke, came away with two golds and a bronze. Peter gaining a gold in the individual senior forms and a gold in pairs with his team mate Gillian Waite from Milton Keynes, then in the fighting section coming away with a fantastic bronze in the semi-final after receiving a back injury in the final round.

 

Coach Peter Johnson was over the moon with his team's success and said: "It just keeps getting better and we have more new talent coming through at the right time. With London 2012 looming it's been a great year so far for the Stoke Club, our Style WTF Olympic Taekwondo will be featured in London 2012 and in Brazil 2016. The outlook is good as established team members attain medals and the new upcoming talent is balancing out the team with strong performances".

 

Peter Johnson 6th Dan WTF
Stoke UTA Taekwondo Clubs
W: www.stokeuta.co.uk
T: 01782 281906
M: 07768681744