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.

Another great result for Falkirk Taekwondo club at the recent UK Team championships with the club winning the event for the unprecedented 7th time beating teams from all across the UK.

Each year the club grows stronger at every event just visit our website to see the history of our successes

10 Competitions giving us:
115 Gold Medals
84 Silver Medals
68 Bronze Medals.
This is an unbelievable achievement for our Taekwondo club who are the top
club in the Traditional Taekwondo Association led by 10th Dan Grandmaster TKLoh.

The club won 11 Golds 11 Silvers and 4 Bronzes in sparring and paired Poomsae.

This year the competition introduced paired poomsae where you have to perform with a partner in sync to get the best points, we won Gold Silver and Bronze in this event with Rory Sneddon and John-Jo Paterson winning Gold, Eve MacDougall and Freya Paterson winning Silver and Christopher Hudson and Elisha Shaw winning Bronze.

Apart from being crowned Team champions we came very close to winning the Black Belt adult male event losing by only 4 points Kristofer Irvine is getting better each year at this event, Conan Irvine 19 came up against a much older and stronger opponent he had a very tough match but his skills shined through to enable him to win his match, Marc Rivett showed his class by winning his fights against heavier opponents in style. I am sure we will win this in the future with the calibre of students we have in the club. A Double congratulations go to Conan and Marc who competed in their first international competition in Belgium early this year they missed out in the medals but gained a vast amount of experience which they can bring to the club to make us stronger in the future.

Jamie Thomson at 11 years old showed great maturity and control to win his final fight against a larger more aggressive opponent with a knock out in the 1st round.

John-Jo Paterson had some tough matches against the Ayr team to win his 6th gold in his short career.
Rory Sneddon also won his 5th Gold in sparring.

Elisha Shaw performed in 2 sparring events and the patterns event winning Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Vincent Connolly a first time competitor won Gold along with his brother Aaron who won Silver.

Dylan McCormick one of the tiniest competitors on the day weighing 20kg won his first Silver in his first competition, another lightweight Abby Robertson also won Silver.

Gary Hamilton, Daniel Hesp performed excellently to win more Golds for the club.

I could go on and mention all students who competed as every one of them did their club
and parents proud by having the courage to compete and win the shield for our club.

Medal winners were as follows;,
Gold medalists, Conan Irvine, Liam Muir, John-Jo Paterson, Jamie Thomson, Rory Sneddon, Elisha Shaw, Vincent Connolly, Gary Hamilton, Daniel Hesp.

Silver medalists, Elisha Shaw, Kristofer Irvine, William Hu, Sam Edwards, Abby Robertson, Conan Irvine, Marc Rivett, Calia Gilmour, Christopher Hudson.

Bronze medalists, Dylan McCormick, Aaron Connolly, Christopher Hudson, Elisha Shaw.

For all our competitors who just missed out on a medal your time will come just persevere.

Thank you so much to everyone who made such an effort to attend the event, without the efforts of students and parents we would not have been so successful, keep up the good work.
The club keeps going from strength to strength in the TTA and is now the undisputed champions
7 times in a row, if you want to train with the best come along for a free 2 week training session
and see how you enjoy the training, we run classes in Falkirk , Grangemouth, Stirling and Callander.

18 Gold 9 Silver and 5 Bronze medals to win the Top team trophy
at the TTA 30th National Taekwondo event held recently at Coatbridge
under the guidance of Grandmaster TK Loh 10th Dan Taekwondo expert.
The event is the longest running Taekwondo competition in Scotland
celebrating 30 years.

This year we excelled in the patterns and the sparring with our club bringing
back 18 Golds, 9 silver and 5 Bronze. This is our best ever achievement in the
competition and may be the best ever achievement in the history of the
event so is a fantastic achievement for all competitors.

In the patterns section we won Gold silver and Bronze in the Children yellow
belt event with Eve Macdougall, Freya Paterson and Caitlin Harrison bringing
the medals home respectively in their first ever competition.

Gary Hamilton won Gold in the Children Green Belt event.

In the children’s Blue belt event Rory Sneddon and Elisha shaw brought home
Gold and Silver respectively.
Jisin Joseph and Alana Tinlin just missed out on the medals this time but
will be back next year to try again.

John Jo Paterson won Gold in the Children Red Belt patterns event, Daniel Hesp
won Silver.

In the Juniors Rebecca Shaw won Silver and Emily Fyffe won Bronze in the Blue
belt patterns event.

In the Adults Black Belt patterns Alasdair cox won Gold and Laura Macdougall
won Silver.

For the sparring we had some amazing fights from both young and old
our club instructors won 7 Golds 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals between
them, Marc Rivett won 3 Golds, Alasdair Cox and Conan Irvine won 2 Golds
Kristofer Irvine won Silver and Ross Walker won Bronze in his first adult event.

In the Juniors event Liam Muir had some tough fights but came out on top to
win Gold in the poom belt event, Eilidh Walker just missed out on the Gold and
brought back a well deserved Silver medal.

Daniel Hesp and Christopher Hudson met each other in another children
final where the more experienced Daniel came out on top winning Gold,
Christopher showed some good promise for the future when he brought
home the Silver. Lewis Witherspoon won Bronze in his event.

Gary Hamilton had a very difficult final against a taller opponent and fought
with spirit to win Silver medal.

Rory Sneddon and John jo Paterson teamed up to both win their 2nd Gold medal
of the day in sparring in the children category.

Elisha Shaw won Gold in children sparring along with Jamie Thomson who
won another Gold after some very difficult fights.

As well as celebrating our recent win we are celebrating the promotion of
Jamie Thomson to Junior Black Belt and Ross Walker to Black Belt along
with brothers Kristofer and Conan Irvine who were promoted to 2nd dan Black Belts.
All 4 students had to endure a 4 hour grading event held by Grandmaster Loh 9th
Dan Taekwondo expert.

This was our best ever result at a national competition and will be very difficult
for anyone to beat this magical achievement!
Our club continues to go from strength to strength every year and we have fantastic
students with potential to reach the highest level in Taekwondo!

The forgotten heroes in Taekwondo is the parents who drive their children to events and
classes to ensure they have the best training and development opportunities in sport.
I’d like to say a big thank you to all of them for supporting our Taekwondo family.

At the recent Traditional Taekwondo Association National team championships in Coatbrige our clubs achievements were amazing we won 12 Golds, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals as well as the Best team spirit!

In the children’s category we participated in 14 events and won 9 Golds 2 Silver and 3 Bronze.

Rory Sneddon won his first Gold and was over the moon with his achievements he had to fight hard for his trophy, Daniel Hesp also won his first Gold medal in the competition after coming close in previous events.

Gary Hamilton won his 2nd medal in his 2nd competition this time gaining a Gold in sparring.

Liam Ferguson, Jisin Joseph and Lewis Witherspoon all received Bronze medals to add to our tally.

Sisters Naomi and Tegan O’May both won Gold medals with Tegan coming out top in a close contest with team
mate Elisha Shaw who won Silver in her first ever competition. Elisha is one to watch in future events, Sister Rebecca Shaw also did well in her first competition to win Silver medal.

John-Jo Paterson again got through to the final and won his 2nd Gold medal in 2 competitions, team mate Jamie Thomson came through some tough matches to win his first Gold medal he is getting stronger at every competition.

Liam Muir won another Gold when he beat a tough opponent to add to his trophies, Liam keeps on developing and getting stronger in every competition he has the potential in the future to be involved in the sport at the highest level.

In the 3 man Coloured belt team we won Gold, Daniel Mallin Martin, William Ferguson and Kenny McQuaide all went home happy with their trophies.

Laura Macdougall competed in two events winning a Gold and Silver for her efforts.

This again was a great achievement, without the help of parents and students it would not be possible to reach these heights! I’d like to thank everyone for their time and dedication which made this event a success and proves we are truly a strong team with a long future ahead of us.