GTI Cornish Taekwondo Open Championships

By Gaz under Martial Arts

Made a weekend out of the Cornish again this year; spent yesterday at my folks’ in Brixham (and snuck off for a sly beer or three in the evening); and then drove the last leg to Bodmin on Sunday morning. Now that I’ve received my Referees certification, I can enjoy competing again without stressing about being a certified ref to qualify for my next grading And what better way to ease myself back into competition than at the Cornish, which is hard to get to and not that well attended.

Wrong! The men’s black belt division was split into just two categories, so some of the speedy middle-weights moved up into my division. I got a bye in the first round, and then the extraordinarily talented Francis Miller (2nd Dan, Evolution Taekwondo) in the next round. I enjoyed the fight and stoicly refused to give in to the fear of losing, despite having my nose broken about a minute into the bout. Having a hundred people all mumble, “ooooh!”, when I walked onto a cracking turning kick that made my nose pop and eyes water was quite an experience Not to be repeated if I can help it though! It was a privilege to fight Francis, and I was pleased to notice how he stayed one step ahead by timing his attacks to start just as I had committed to my attack… he was able to keep just outside of my range, and then move in as I was recovering my balance but before I had the time to get my next combination started. A lesson well learned.

Due to the lack of competitors, even in the amalgamated division I had a chance to fight for Bronze, despite losing badly to Francis. Unfortunately for me, I had to beat his instructor (4th Dan). Hmmm. Actually, it wasn’t anywhere close to as one-sided as I had feared; I had a good reach and weight advantage, and was fired up from the last bout. I thought I put in a good effort, and even caught him in the ribs with a side kick while he was in mid-aerial technique on a couple of occasions. Despite my efforts, he still won with a unanimous decision from the judges.

Before all the excitement in the sparring, I displayed a fairly pathetic rendition of ChungJang in the Black Belt Patterns, for an 8.9 and two 9.0s. Plenty of room for improvement there despite a reasonable score.