3 members of Spirit Taekwon-Do Academies represented the United Kingdom at the 7th Junior & 13th Senior ITF World Championships in Daejon City, South Korea.

This historic event that sees, for the first time, ITF Taekwon-do returning to the country of its birth, Korea.

The 13th senior and 7th Junior ITF World Championships started with an opening ceremony that took place, at the magnificent Kotrex Exhibition Centre in Daejon City, South Korea.

There were over 1000 competitors making the historic return of ITF Taekwon-do to the country of its birth. Myself and Danny Welland, Jason Carsberg and Daryl Ayres excitingly took our positions with Team UK to watch the opening ceremony that was history in the making.

The show was fantastic, much in common with the Olympic opening ceremony but of course a smaller version. The theme was based on the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

The Three Kingdoms refers to a period of time (early 4th to mid-7th centuries AD) marked by the struggle of three rival kingdoms: Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla over the territory spanning the Korean peninsula.

We were also treated to two bouts of sparring by the ITF International Circuit. This new 'branch' of the ITF, currently under development in South America, is a full contact version of our art developed for the broadcast media.

The ceremonies were concluded by an exciting fireworks display in the grounds of the exhibition centre.
After weighing in two days earlier it was time compete in the World Championships, as usual we where very nervous but couldn’t wait to test ourselves against some of the best ITF competitors the world has to offer.

First up in the middleweight division was Danny Welland who faced a Russian that I have seen competing before at the European Championships in Eden oven Holland. As per usual the Russians are great fighters with excellent counter techniques, Dan fought a safe fight with good movement and footwork. Unfortunately neither fighter did enough to edge a victory and as a result the fight went to extra time, in which Dan fought well to take himself through to the second round to fight the winner of Jason Carsberg and his Japanese opponent.

Next up was Jason who was up against the No1 fighter from the Japanese team. He fought well throughout the fight showing good counter kicking, although there are a few things he needs to work on. Although he kept pressure on the Japanese guy, unfortunately the Jap was a little more solid and actually went on to fight until the semi final where he eventually lost to an Argentine.

It was my turn against the Korean (David Beckham), Lights, Camera’s and some serious sparring action for two rounds that unfortunately wasn’t enough to over throw him and I narrowly lost by a points decision after much deliberating from the ITF Judges.

Finally Daryl Ayres was up next time for some more Russian roulette, He Fought well over a very good Sidekick for his First outing and dominated proceedings.

Daryl used pretty much the same game plan in His second fight but this time a victory wasn't the order of the day and a defeat was had.
I was lucky enough to be Team Captain for Team UK 2, and then reality set in when the draw was made and we were up against the Argentineans The World Team Champions!

We all fought well, it was so close a call that it went to the last fight I was so excited that I almost forgot that I hadn’t been up and it was down to myself to take the team forward… Alas, it wasn’t my day of course I felt completely gutted that I couldn’t have helped Team UK go through, it was one of those fights that could have gone either way se we held our heads up that we almost got two the Quarter Finals.

Although we didn’t come away with any medals the experience gained from such an amazing trip was life changing. To go to the birthplace of Korea was something else. I must end this article with a big THANK YOU to all of UKITF, I know many of you put in donations, also a big thank you to all who attended the seminar and wished us all well.

Paul Cain IV

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