SOUTH EAST OPEN 2005

The 1st weekend in April took us up to St Albans for the South East Championships.

The Black Belt patterns started off the Championships, you could hear a pin drop as the 4TH Degree's performed pattern Yoo Sin with great timing and power.

Daryl Ayres of Spirit Taekwon-Do was first up for the 2nd Degree patterns electing to perform Choong Jang. Mr Ayres went through the next few rounds using good breath control, timing and Sinewave. After his fourth round Mr Aryes was in the final. A slightly missed placed walking stance was all that stood in Daryl's way of receiving a first place. Mr Aryre's was happy with 2nd place.
Always remember it's the taking part that counts, winning doesn't matter, unless your the WINNER!

Next up was the Black Belt Sparring, Ladies first. The ladies sparring was of the usual high standard that we have become accustom to in the ITF. Esther Houghton fought a good fight against Stacy from Team UK only to suffer a narrow defeat.

The men followed with all the Black Belt men in the same catergory. There were a few nervous faces in the warm up area as some competitors hadn't fought out of their own weight category before. There was also a couple of Team UK members to add to the tension.
Daryl Aryes was up first again against last year's winner!
Mr Ayres was picked last year to represent Team UK at the ITF World Chamionships in Korea 2004.
Daryl won convincingly. Paul Cain was up next from Spirit Taekwon-Do.
Mr Cain was also picked to represent Team UK at the ITF World Championships in Korea and Captain Team UKITF at the last Clash of the Titans in March 2005.

Mr Cain fought 4 hard rounds to get into the final beating Mr Ayres on the way.

Both Paul & Daryl wish they could have met each other in the final.
The final consisted of two rounds. The first of the two turned out to be quite a technical round, in the second Paul Cain showed his experience and dominated all the fight to be crowned South East Champion 2005!
As I said before winning doesn't matter unless your are the WINNER!

Damien Smith of Spirit Taekwon-Do who has just come back from the World Kickboxing Championships held in Cyprus. Received a first place in the Blue belt mens catergory. Damien fought 3 hard rounds of sparring to receive another 1st place to go along side his 2nd in the World Kickboxing Championships.

A big thank you goes to The Imperial Taekwon-Do Association for making this all possible. Without their support we wouldn't be where we are today. Take a look at the gallery for South East Tournament photo's.