Aotearoa Te Puke Taekwondo entered a team of 10 students in the NZUTA Taekwondo National Championships, returning home with eight gold, three silver and two bronze medals. Eight of the 10 fighters were in the red belt to black belt divisions.
It was an outstanding effort from the young junior team as they all trained very hard to achieve their goals. The build up to any national competition or international selection process should always be winner takes all, but also making sure your fighter/student has what it takes to compete at a high performance level.
As any good instructor/coach would know, each individual person operates differently to certain disciplines taught.
However, hard work, trust and dedication will always be the key factors to the small club's ongoing success. Ultimately for Aotearoa Te Puke being national champions is the very best place to start.
Highlights of the tournament were Orion Thomas, 12, and Lakshya Dhillon, 9. Unfortunately for Lakshya, a tummy bug affected his performance.