WUMA SAMURAI ENGLISH OPEN

Students from Master Kirkwood's school of Cho's TKD in Blantyre, attended the WUMA Samurai English Open Championships in Worcester, England on Sunday the 19th of July. The students, who are part of Master Kirkwood's National Squad had asked to attend the event, as most of the squad where on holiday or could not attend. Both Master Kirkwood and Mrs Kirkwood attend the event along with the three students and their parents. The group had a great weekend of relaxing and also managed some historical site seeing in the area, before the event on the Sunday.

The young students who took part where Jack Reid, Tammy Sutherland and Rachel Miller. All three of them did an exceptional job and came away with a staggering 8 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze from their various divisions.

The three students won Gold in the team pattern event, and young Jack won Gold in the individual Korean pattern section, with Rachel taking the Silver in this division. Young Jack also went on to take another Gold in the Weapons section with his BO and beat some good contenders who had used nunchuka's and Bo's.

Within the point and continuous sparring divisions, we had Tammy Sutherland who won Gold in her Points sparring division and also in her Continuous sparring division. Young Rachel also took Gold in her point sparring division and a Silver in her continuous sparring.

Jack had some serious fighters to contend with in both the points and continuous divisions. The boys were not only much bigger in size but a couple of years older as well. However, he did a fantastic job and won Bronze in his points and continuous sparring.

Master Kirkwood and Mrs Kirkwood would like to thank the parents for supporting the young students and taking time out to take them to the event. It can be an expensive business taking them to these events and also tiring, as we travel more than 300 miles by car, there and back to compete in the WUMA events. Also a big thank you Master Hopkins who has always welcomed us to WUMA, his competitions are great and show no politics, no bias and will always have our support.

Middle Back (Master Kirkwood) left to Right (Rachel Miller, Jack Reid and Tammy Sutherland)