Students of Monmouth, Coleford and Raglan Tae Kwon-Do entered the 8th Open Tae Kwon-Do World Championships at the NIA in Birmingham, gaining some fantastic results. The highlight of the tournament was the Black Belt Breaking Event when the instructor, Mr Tony Farr fourth degree Black Belt, became the World Champion in Destruction with the fist. Mr Farr has waited a long time for this accolade, having trained in Tae Kwon-Do for 20 years, and entered numerous World Championships. The first day's events, focussing on Men's and Women's Individual Sparring, saw Coleford students Chloe Robbins and Grant Copeland awarded Bronze medals in their respective Blue Belt Sparring categories, and Daniel Peregreen winning the World Championship in Heavyweight Yellow Belt Sparring. On day two of the tournament, during Junior Sparring, Coleford student Laurana Milliner became the Bronze medal winner in Lightweight Yellow Belt Girls Sparring, and Monmouth students Anwen Shaw-Penman and Nathaniel Haggett both gained Bronze medals in their respective Sparring events, Anwen in Blue Belt girls, Nathaniel in Red Belt boys. Our recent fundraising efforts to take our students to the World Championships included a Sponsored Kick, a Sponsored Body-Waxing and a Sponsored Silence Earlier this year, junior students Rhiannon Shaw- Penman and Ryan Hollis kept quiet for the whole of a two hour training session, which was no mean feat! The 28 April saw our big fundraising day kick off with up to 100 students gathered for the sponsored kick. We were joined by the Mayor of Monmouth, Mr Terry Christopher, and Monmouth MP, Mr David Davies. The afternoon was spent with three willing gents having various parts of their anatomy de-fuzzed. Messrs Tony Farr, Ken Penman and Paul Ingram endured the pain as they watched their chests and backs being waxed. In total, thanks to the public and local businesses, the club raised a fantastic amount of nearly £2,000 to take the students of Monmouth, Coleford and Raglan Tae Kwon-Do to Birmingham to compete in this most prestigious event.
