Taekwondo: Fighters bring back medals

Te Puke's Aotearoa Taekwondo team. Back left to right, Manauri Wilson, Kayne Jackson-Gilmore, Christopher Vazey. Middle, Lakshya Dhillon, Orion Thomas, Hohepa Kokiri. Front, Maiamarie Gauld, Mahinarangi Wirihana. Photo / Supplied

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.

He lost 1.5kg on the trip to Auckland and having the option through his mum and dad to stay home, Lakshya chose to be with his team, showing great courage. Most kids his age after all that he had been through that day would have thrown in the towel, but he showed awesome fighting spirit to win a bronze medal.

Most improved student Orion Thomas went into his match a lot more focused than ever before. Bringing him out of his comfort zone has been the biggest task to date. Working on a few other techniques certainly helped Orion moving forward.

Taking a couple of head shots in the first round woke Orion up after his opponent had a 7-1 lead by the second round. Orion went on the attack and as his team roared in excitement, he got a head shot in of his own as the round came to an end with 9-7 final score to his opponent, with Orion gaining the silver medal. Well done to both young fighters. Aotearoa Taekwondo thanks all supporters.