Members of Wellingborough taekwondo club return from 'amazing' tournament in Belgium with impressive haul of medals

Wellingborough Taekwondo has returned from a fruitful venture in Belgium after being part of a squad that represented England in an international tournament in Vilvoorde.

The club sent six of its combatants to be included in the team that represented England in October, taking part in divisions that include patterns, a power test and sparring.

Tina King, 49, the club’s administrator and black-belt in Taekwondo, said: "It was brilliant, for me personally it was my first tournament and I’m not a youngster.

“It was a bucket list thing to do for me, and I can honestly say it was one of the best things I’ve ever done, it was so much fun.

“The camaraderie and the family element between the squad members, we met some brilliant people over there, we’ve all got a couple of extra friends on Facebook from it.”

The club, which is run by Tina’s husband and Seventh-Dan master, Steve, had to endure the Covid pandemic by offering online classes so the prospect of travelling to mainland Europe for a competition with people from around the world was ‘amazing.’

Some flew to the venue, while others drove or took the Eurostar to make it to the October 21 event.

490 people took part from countries like Albania, Spain and Ireland, with 20 people representing England, scooping up 21 medals on the day.

Tina called the accomplishment ‘a brilliant result.’

The club has been teaching Taekwondo, a form of martial arts that originated in Korea, for more than 30 years, catering to people of all ages and abilities in classes based at Sir Christopher Hatton Academy, Wollaston Secondary School and Grange Park, Northampton.

Tina added: “We’d like to get more people involved.

“Us coming back and showing the medals that we have and talking about it, I think we’ll get more people geared up to do it again next year.

"We’re already looking at potentially attending one in Rotterdam in March.

"Now that Covid is done and gone, thank goodness, it gives us more scope to open up, go to more of these tournaments and do more things.”