The presentation for these Awards took place on the evening of Monday 16 December 2002 at the Kentish Town dojang - pictures here. This was the first time the awards have been given at the new school as it has only been open since May 2002.

The Student of the Year for 2002 is Joseph Newis, 7th Kup. Since his (and the club's!) first lesson back in May, Joe has consistently shown excellence in his attitude, attendance, effort and dedication. This has resulted in very good performances at gradings, and a high standard of ability and technical skill at Taekwon-Do. I fully expect him to continue his solid development and also anticipate very good tournament performances in the new year.

There can be only one Student of the Year, but there was a second award to recognise another excellent student of the school. This is called the Most Promising Student Award and was this year given to Yuliya Shybayeva, 8th Kup. Yuliya has shown equally good technical ability in Taekwon-Do and her first 2 Gradings have both been well above average, impressing the examiner. Over the months, her attendance has improved and her knowledge of Taekwon-Do is well in advance of her rank.

Both of these students are examples of the best kind of student. They consistently show dedication, effort and a positive attitude, which sets an example for the other students in the class.

In general the school at Kentish Town is going strong, and things are looking good for the new year!

The competition took place on Thursday 19 December. There were 2 teams of 4 people and they came up with the team names "The Grinders" and "The Winners".

For the Grinders there was Elliot Stead, Yuliya Shybayeva, Kobir Miah and Carlo Giacobazzi. For the Winners there was Joseph Newis, Alireza Gulestani, Edgar Lekarkin and Daniel Smith.

There were 3 events in this closely fought competition - Techniques, Patterns and Sparring. After the first two events, the Grinders were 12 - 8 down and had it all to do in the Sparring to get back into it. There were some particularly good sparring performances from Kobir and Elliot to help the team bridge the gap. The Grinders ended up taking 8 of the available 10 points for sparring just edging themselves into the wining position at 16 -14!

Overall, the standard was good and this event was a great opportunity for the students to have a taste of competition before entering larger events in the New Year. Teams received Gold or Silver medals and so they all took away something for their hard efforts during the evening!

Well done to Kentish Town school and big thanks to Liz M. for helping out with the administration of the event!

This tournament is a big one in the junior and senior ITF calendar and this was confirmed by the turnout of just under 450 competitors. The competition was a success despite running very far behind schedule, eventually finishing at 10:30pm after starting at 11am!

The venue was excellent and the overall standard was high. Many competitors were sporting unusual styles of dobok including all red and all black versions that were certainly different. Schools that performed particularly well were Docklands, Chand School of TKD, Thames Valley, and Vision TKD with many medals proudly returned to the clubs.

Individual results for competitors known to Taekwon-Do Excel are listed below. I won the Gold medal in the Black Belt Middleweight Sparring event and an interview with my Instructor - Mr Thomas Denis - is here.

Later this year, students from Kentish Town will be ready to compete for TKD Excel and I fully anticipate a good medal haul when they do!

Black Belt Sparring 69-78Kg

SILVER

This tournament was one of the most important events in the junior UKTF calendar and this was confirmed by the turnout of 120 competitors. The competition was a success and ran as scheduled thanks to the presence of many black belts and instructors helping to officiate.

The competition was honored with the presence of two European and World Champions who were there as officials or coaches:Mr Z. Galesic (Croatia) - current European and World Heavyweight Sparring Champion; Mr T. Nicholson (UK) - European Bronze medallist in Patterns. Senior officials were Mr J. Hogan 6th Degree and Mr Thomas Denis 5th Degree.

One of the best aspects of the competition was the high standard of of the patterns competition. Patterns is the area of Taekwon-Do that most clearly demonstrates the skill and dedication of the practitioner, and so it is great that performances were so strong in this event. The UKTF has a great many talented youngsters who were all showing their skill at this tournament.

Schools that performed particularly well were Docklands, Bedford, Barnes and Crouch End with many medals proudly returned to the clubs.