10/04/10 British Poomsae Championships
The BTCB British Poomsae Championships was held over the weekend of 27th/28th March at the English Institute
of Sport in Sheffield. There were 400 competitors from all over the UK. Central Taekwondo Academy had a team
of 36 players taking part.
On the Saturday the black belt divisions were contested. It turned out to be the most successful national championships yet for Central Academy. Master Bailey has ranked second in the 1st Masters category for the
past 8 years. This year he came out top of the biggest field ever to compete in this division.
Master Bailey is now the only British male to have held the British title for both sparring and patterns.
Angie Bailey was up against the so far undefeated British Champion Karen MacRae in the 1st Masters Female category. She gave the performance of her life to take the British title in convincing style.
Master Bailey and Angie then paired up to retain their British pairs title, beating National Coach Gemma Biescas
and Simon Negus, to become double British Champions.
There are only 10 A Class
individual British Champions and Master Bailey
and Angie are amongst them!
Central went on to retain the Cadet Female Team title. This year it was Asia Bailey, Erin Scott and Ellise Bailey who gave
an excellent synchron performance.
Asia also achieved a silver medal
in the cadet female division and then paired off with Hassan Haider to win silver in the cadet pairs category.
Jordyn Smith took an individual silver in the Peewee Female category. In the Team 1 division Alan Haston, Gordon Storie and Simon McAnsh
took a silver medal, beating Darren Tasker,
Glen Brown and Iain Opray who took bronze. In the Team 2 division Jimmy Rennie, Howard Sargeant and Nigel Robinson also won a bronze.
It was an impressive medal haul and produced a fantastic overall 2nd placed team award for
Central Academy. There were a record number 32 clubs competing and we were beaten only by Livingwell.
On Sunday it was the turn of the coloured belts. Central had another very strong team of 18 players. Charlie Kinnon and Niamh Scott kicked the day off in style winning the gold medals in their respective peewee divisions. They later produced a fantastic pairs pattern to win that category too. Nicky Scott was our only other individual national champion when she won the Senior 2 Female category. Nicky doubled her gold medal haul when she
won the female team 2 division with Shona Smith and Sam McKinlay. Charlie Kinnon earned his 3rd gold when he teamed up with Evan Balfour and Mitch Speirs to win the Peewee male team category.
Iain Opray and Vicky Storie produced an excellent pairs performance to win the British title in their division. Individual Silver medals were won by Joe Evans, Iona Alker, Iain Opray and Naomi Strathie and Ellie Muir. Silvers also went to Joe and Iona in the pairs and Charlie, Kristian and Joe and Naomi, Iona and Kirsten McKay and Ellie, Ciara McLernon and Lauren McKinlay in their team divisions.
Bronze medals were won by Kristian Kinnon, Sam McKinlay and Evan Balfour in their individuals; Evan and Kirsten in pairs and Ellie Muir and Mitchell Speirs in pairs.
It was another great day for the Central Academy team and meant we took another overall 2nd placed team award making us overall the most successful team at this year’s national championships.
A special mention should go to all the Central Poomsae judges who worked really hard all weekend. And congratulations to Ann Haston for being voted the best Poomsae judge on the Sunday.
Well done to all who made the trip to Sheffield and helped to show the rest of the UK that Central is right at the
top when it comes to Poomsae in the UK.