Falkirk Taekwondo club recently competed in the National Championships in Coatbridge against clubs from all over the UK and Ireland. Not only did we come back with a tremendous amount of medals 27 we also brought home the National Championship shield making us the Team Champions for 2008.  This is a brilliant achievement for the club. The team of 30 students ranging in age from 6 years old to over 40 years should all be very proud of themselves for achieving such a coveted prize at a prestigious event held by Grandmaster TK Loh one of the worlds leading Martial arts exponents. This tournament cemented the club as one of the best Taekwondo clubs in the UK, we dominated the children and juniors division this was clearly shown by the margins that we won in our finals with no fewer than seven being scored 7 to 0 for Falkirk.

The medal tally is as follows;

Sparring:
Conan Irvine 3 gold medals for fighting in 3 different weight categories with the heaviest opponent being 13kg heavier than him, winning all finals 7 – 0. Liam Muir also competed in 2 weight categories winning 2 Golds and the best Juniorfighter of the tournament.
Danielle Kelly came home with her 8th Gold medal in a row she will need a new trophy cabinet to hold them all, her target is to get 10 in a row which has got to be a 1st in Taekwondo. Michael Taylor done a great job winning the final 7-0 to bring home another Gold for the club. Anna Holden in her first competition won 7-0 and has her 1st Gold medal she has a great Taekwondo future ahead of her. Ellie Fenwick another young girl also brought a Gold back, she showed true grit winning the finalin a tough fought bout.
Tony Clark who has only been training for about 6 months won Gold in his first competition. Again we had a few more 1st time fighters Richard Buchanan and Liam Hanlon who brought home Silvers in the adult male categories, Liam also added a Bronze for sparring in the weight above him.
Our other Silver medalists were Scott McCoull, Daniel Hesp, Calum Glen and Alasdair Cox. Alasdair also won a Bronze medal as did Alan Wilson and Kyle Seabrook.
If that wasn’t enough young Owen Horne had some tough matches to get through to the finalsand came home with a Silver. I almost forgot Marc Irvine who fought against the World Champion and came home with a respectable Bronze.

Poomsae:

Eilidh Johnson and Aoife Doyle had their 1st competition and brought home Gold and Silver for patterns respectively.
Liam Hanlon also competed in the patterns and gained a Gold for his efforts. Alasdair Cox who worships his Taekwondo added a Bronze to his medals for patterns.

As this was a major team effort we need to mention those who just missed out in the medals but definitely made a big contribution to the results on the day, they are Kelly Irvine, Robbie Player, Alan Taylor, Kristofer Irvine and a special mention for Claire Luti who supported and encouraged
the whole team throughout the day, lets not forget our youngest fighter Jamie Thomson who will develop into a special student.

Instructor Duncan Irvine was delighted with the results though that is probably an understatement, “I would like to say well done to all my students for their hard work and dedication over the past year to achieve the Best Team trophy is a major milestone for our club and shall be remembered
and savoured for years” , “also a big thank you to all the parents who supported us on the day we could not have done it without you”.