Te Karaka's Taekwon-do presence felt

AMONG THE MEDALS: Te Karaka Taekwon-Do had five students at the International Taekwon-Do Nationals in Tauranga this month. They brought back a total of eight medals. The students are, back (from left): Andre Riley, Claudia Cale and DJ Baty. Front: Alex Davies and Oliver Davies. Picture supplied

TE KARAKA Taekwon-Do brought back one gold, two silver and five bronze medals from the International Taekwon-Do Nationals in Tauranga this month.

The tournament doubled as the Oceania championships. Te Karaka Taekwon-Do had five students there. Yellow belt and first-time national competitor DJ Baty won a gold medal in his division of junior sparring.

Junior competitors had two events — sparring and patterns.

DJ had been eliminated early in patterns by the eventual gold-medal-winner, which only made him more determined to do well in sparring.

In the gold-medal fight, he fought hard and fast with great precision.

Coach Kevin Cale said that in future it would be hard to stop someone like DJ, who had great talent coupled with a good training ethic and desire to achieve.

Andre Riley was also at his first nationals and was in a huge patterns division. Nine rounds had to be contested before the medal positions were at stake.

He was up to the challenge and made it to the bronze-medal position. He went out to the eventual gold medallist, but with such a big field, bronze was a fantastic achievement.

Sparring for Andre was hard work against a much taller opponent. Even though he never gave up, he did not progress past the first round.

Claudia Cale had been to a few nationals and knew it was going to be hard. She was entered in four events and would have to “give it heaps” to achieve.

Specialty is where set kicks are performed at ever-increasing heights until the winners are found. From a big starting division, Claudia went to a three-person jump-off and won a bronze medal.

Power breaking is where competitors break boards with hands and feet. Claudia broke boards with her three techniques but was docked one point for inaccurate delivery. This cost her a second medal.

Sparring was next and after two fights in quick succession Claudia was in the final. Both competitors landed good scoring points in a close first round. Claudia fell awkwardly at the start of Round 2 and although Tshe fought on, the fight got away from her. Still, she was rewarded with another silver medal.

Her injury didn’t get better and she was forced to withdraw from the patterns competition.

Brothers Oliver and Alex Davies also won medals. Oliver showed the benefit of his experience for such a young man at a senior level, and he came away with a bronze medal.

Alex could hardly stop winning medals. He came away with three — a silver medal in specialty, and bronze medals in patterns and sparring.

“This was a great achievement for our athletes on such a huge international stage,” Kevin Cale said.

At the awards dinner on the Saturday night, local woman Jackie Davis was recognised for her continuing support for the International Taekwon-Do organisation.

Over the years she has raised thousands of dollars for competing athletes and her contribution was vital to the New Zealand team being able to travel last year.