A great year for Falkirk/Callander Taekwondo club now 33 years in Falkirk!

To start with we recently had 12 students sitting a gruelling 4 hour Black Belt test covering patterns sparring and breaking techniques.

The test was governed by Grandmaster Loh 9th Dan Taekwondo expert who is the
founder of Traditional Taekwondo Association in the UK.

Our students covered adults and children levels.
William Ferguson and Matthias Schmautz passed their senior 1st Dan, Scott McCoull successfully passed his 2nd Dan.
Our children girls had a successful day with the following all passing their 1st Poom (Junior Black Belt); Jessica Naylor, Lauren Duffy, Charlotte Hesp, Anna McCoull and Alana Tinlin.
The boys also did very well with John-Jo Paterson, Jamie Thomson and Rory Sneddon
all passing their 2nd Poom (Junior 2nd Dan) and Gary Hamilton passing his 1st Poom.

Thats not all we have to celebrate as recently we competed in the Taekwondo national team Championships in Glasgow where we won Gold Medals for Rory Sneddon, Jamie Thomson, Elisha Shaw and Jamie Farquhar, Silver medals for Conan Irvine, Kristofer Irvine, Liam Muir, Alex Tweedie, Gary Hamilton and Bronze medals for John-Jo Paterson, Erin Mullen, Caitlin Harrison
and Emily Fyffe.

The icing on the cake for the club was 3 of our instructors Conan Irvine, Kristofer Irvine along with Liam Muir having had a great international season.
The pinnacle representing Scotland in the Commonwealth Games where Liam brought home a Bronze medal with plans to represent Scotland again in 2016.

At the recent Taekwondo open international competition in Belgium Conan Irvine gained his first Bronze medal after competing in his 2nd international event he did very well to win his first fight, just losing out in his 2nd fight by a few points.

Liam Muir and Kristofer Irvine also competed and both competitors done very well at the event for the first time and lost by a few points in very close matches.

I am sure their experience will benefit them and the club in the long term.

Another fantastic competition for the club winning the UK championship for the
8th time coming away with a mixture of 14 Golds, 14 Silvers and 9 Bronze.
This competition was a mixture of 14 patterns and 23 sparring medals competing
against teams from Scotland England and Ireland.

Our Taekwondo girls won 4 Golds, Abby Robertson the youngest of the
competitors done great, sisters Aimee and Calia Gilmour done very well and
Elisha Shaw won another to add to her growing collection.

The girls also added 4 Silvers, Samantha Gordon done very well for her first competition
and will be better for the experience, Laura MacDougall, Elisha Shaw and Emily Fyffe
won the other Silvers.
Aimee Gilmour Emily Fyffe and Rebecca Shaw won Bronze to make it a great end to
their day.

The boys again had a strong competition winning 10 Golds with Alasdair Cox, Conan Irvine, Dylan McCormick
Gary Hamilton (2), Jamie Thomson, John-Jo Paterson and Liam Muir (2), Lewis Witherspoon
also won his first Gold showing that perseverance will get you the benefits after coming
close in his previous competitions.

For the Silver medals (10 in total) brothers Aaron and Vincent Connelly done well to win, Alasdair Cox
Conan Irvine (2), Dylan McCormick and Rory Sneddon (2) as well as Christopher Hudson (2) bringing back the Silverware with a smile on their faces.

Lastly we won a total of 9 Bronze with Kristofer Irvine winning 2 Aaron Connelly, Aimee Gilmour, Emily Fyffe, John-Jo Paterson, Jamie Thomson, Rebecca shaw and Vincent Connelly winning the rest.

Each student deserves a special mention here as they all showed true Taekwondo spirit
and tenacity to get the results they deserve.

Again it was a fantastic day for all involved, we have a great family friendly club who work together
to give us the successes we get, without the support of all the parents it would not be possible. Thanks!
to all of you and enjoy the festive break ahead.

This year we also saw Mark Doyle Ricky Buchanan and Laura MacDougall get their 1st Dan Black Belts,
we also have new Junior Black Belts Rory Sneddon, John-Jo Paterson and Daniel Hesp, Alasdair Cox
received his 2nd Dan as well.

With the commonwealth games around the corner we have a number of potential stars
who are in with a good chance of fighting for Scotland, watch this space.