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 On Saturday 8th January Swain Taekwon-Do attended the P.U.M.A. International Open Championships in Swindon. There were almost 400 competitors from many schools and organisations in attendance.
Swain Taekwon-Do took 8 members - competitors, coaches and competition officials! Read on to find out how they got on.
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 Another busy weekend for Swain Taekwon-Do saw Mr Swain and Mr Bailey junior head to Eindhoven, The Netherlands for the 2020 Open Dutch Championships while Mrs Swain put some students through their paces with an extra sparring session!
 The 2019 P.U.M.A. British Championships were held on Sunday 17th November at the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon. There were just under 300 competitors in total!
Swain Taekwon-Do had their biggest team of students entering, which was fantastic. I was particularly impressed to see everyone moving around the different rings to support each other through the competition. Mr and Mrs Swain represented P.U.M.A. at the 10th edition of the Holland Cup in Pijnacker, The Netherlands on May 25th and 26th as part of a squad of 20 competitors. They had also been invited to be ambassadors for the competition, to reflect their commitment and successes at the competition in previous years, which saw them featured on promotional material before and at the competition.
The Holland Cup is a 2-day competition which sees blue belts and above competing on the Saturday, with blue stripes and below competing on the Sunday after a team event of hand picked international competitors.  The Swain Taekwon-Do Competitors at the end of the day; a couple missing as they had to leave early The point stop and team championships is an event which hadn't featured on the PUMA calendar for a few years, but this year it made a come back - much to the enjoyment of everyone there.
Held on Sunday 24th March, in Newbury, over 200 competitors from 23 schools took part, overseen by 43 officials. From Swain Taekwon-Do we had eight competitors, making three teams, and Mr Swain going along as a Referee. I was very proud of how well everyone performed, many in their first competition. Although I am even more proud of how well you all worked together, looked after each other, and supported each other throughout the competition. I look forward to seeing you at the next one!
 On Saturday 16th February P.U.M.A. hosted its annual International Open championships. Approximately 435 competitors from 6 Countries (England, Wales, Netherlands, Italy, USA and India) descended on Swindon for the day. The officials worked tirelessly to run 6 squares through a very long day. Swain Taekwon-Do contributed 4 competitors - two students and two instructors. It was a great day with some very strong performances, and as ever we are very proud of our students who entered.
We would love to see many more students testing themselves with competitions, and there are plenty of opportunities coming up to develop your skills, including:
   Sunday 18th November was a fantastic day for Swain Taekwon-Do competitors at the P.U.M.A. British Championships. The competition was one of the largest P.U.M.A. competitions for a while, and Swain Taekwon-Do had 5 students and 2 instructors competing. Before we get on to the medal results, we want to say a massive thank you to Chrissy Hallett and Mrs Coles who gave up their time to officiate at the competition, alongside Mr and Mrs Swain. Competitions can't run without officials, so we are very grateful to you for giving up your time. Now for the competition results:
This should give us a good push up the P.U.M.A. schools league table for the year. The table will reset in January, and lots more of you should be considering competing next year. You all have the talent, lets see if we can top the table next year!! More photos can be found on our Facebook page!  We had our largest group of students yet enter the P.U.M.A. English Championships on 1st July in Swindon - but there is still room for more. All but one of them were competing in their first ever competition which takes a lot of courage and deserves respect in itself.
It was a very hot day but all our students kept their cool and performed well. Other instructors even commented how well some of you did, which shows how hard you all are working. I am sure they all took away some valuable experience which will help them in their next competition. Who did what? Anissa Se-Upara - High Kick and Patterns Sutti Se-Upara - Patterns Erin Couper - High Kick, and a Bronze in Patterns Pippa Read - High Kick, a Bronze in Patterns, and a Bronze in Sparring Aimee Mansel - Bronze in Musical Patterns, Bronze in Sparring, and a Silver in Patterns! These results put us in joint 17th (out of 33 schools) in P.U.M.A.s new competition league table, after the first competition. I'm sure we can climb that throughout the year. Alongside our students, Mr Swain spent the day refereeing at the competition, while Mrs Swain spent time as a referee as well as competing - taking Gold in both Patterns and Sparring!  In April 2018 642 Athletes, along with 113 Officials and 166 Coaches arrived in Maribor, Slovenia to compete at the 33rd Senior and 24th Junior European Taekwon-Do Championships. ITF-England took a team of 27 competitors, including 4 students from P.U.M.A. - Mr and Mrs Swain, Miss Hodson (from Oxfordshire) and Mr Gould (from Bristol). For Mr and Mrs Swain the trip began, and ended, in many travel related headaches - from cancelled flights to delayed baggage and very late nights/early mornings! Not the best preparation for a European Championships, however using a professional approach and "compartmentalisation" they made sure this didn't affect their performances at the competition. After arriving in Maribor on Tuesday the team had the opportunity to have a light training session at Master Barada's dojang, the home of many international champions. The hotels swimming pool and Sauna were also used to refresh the legs after travelling. On Wednesday morning ITF-England had their registration slot, with all members of the team making weight first time - a relief for some who could then have their late breakfast; in the afternoon we had another training session at Master Barada's and a bit of down time before the competition started on Thursday morning! The first day of competition saw Mr and Mrs Swain compete in Traditional Sparring and both their respective patterns categories; all on the raised centre stage! Traditional sparring was their first event, shortly before lunch. After beating the pair from Belarus in their first match, they lost to the Norwegian pair in the semi-finals - earning a Bronze medal, England's first medal of the competition! Female 4th-6th Degree patterns was the first category on after lunch, with Mrs Swain easing past competitors from Ireland and Poland on her way to the final. Mrs Swain took home a well earned Silver medal, coming up against a multi time World and European Champion (Silvia Farigu) from Italy. The last event of the day was the Male 4th-6th Degree Patterns; Mr Swain beat competitors from Israel in Round 1, Ireland in Round 2 (on an additional pattern after a draw!) then Poland in the semi final, after which he was told he'd have to wait until the Gala Finals Night on Saturday for his last round. The other finalist was 3x European Champion, and multi-time World Medalist Lylian Doulay of France. Under the lights on centre stage Mr Doulay took his 4th European title, meaning Mr Swain matched Mrs Swains silver! Sunday was the day for Team Events, with Mr Swain being drafted into the Men's sparring team shortly before flying to Slovenia! First up for England was Ireland - reigning and multiple time World Team Sparring champions... With some clever coaching decisions England were victorious and into the semi finals against Russia. Unfortunately that is where the road ended with the Men's Team claiming a hard fought bronze medal, taking Mr Swains tally to 3 medals - and some light hearted bragging rights over Mrs Swain, for once! An honourable mention must be given to Mr Gould (competing in his first European Championships) and Miss Hodson; both of whom gave it their all against some very strong competition. Unfortunately no medals for them this time, although they both have promising futures ahead of them! In total ITF England took home 8 Medals: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, and 5 Bronze! Plenty to build on for the World Championships in April 2019! Many thanks to ITF England's equipment sponsors Mightyfist Europe who make top quality Taekwon-Do doboks and training equipment. Photo's courtesy of The TKD Reporters, Mr Lammin and Mr Rowe. |
Welcome!Welcome to our blog which we'll be using to record special events and successes of our students. Archives
June 2020
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