RL_Taekwondo

Students from Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy took part in a tournament at Watford. The event started with one minutes silence for the victims of the American terrorist attacks before proceeding onto the actual tournament.

The day went well for the Academy, with many young students gaining trophies in their respective divisions. Abdullah Patima showed a superb display of Taekwon-dos aerial kicking techniques which led him through to the finals of the cadets white to green belt division, claiming his gold medal position with jumping & spinning kicking techniques, on the way he met Kanai Brand from the Academy in a very closely fought bout. Dev Patel also fought extremely well in the childrens intermediates category & after some hard fights but was pipped at the post & had to settle for silver. Dev also won a bronze in the patterns section. In the adult patterns, Jafar Mahir won a bronze, a good result considering he has only been training a few months & this was his first Taekwon-do competition.

Zoe Bennett fought an excellent fighter from Kent & won the gold in her division after an impressive performance from both fighters. Her sister Toni also won the bronze medal in that division. However, Toni did one better by claiming the silver medal in the junior patterns division with a fine performance of the Korean pattern 'Joong-Gun'.

In the adult divisions Parvez Sultan won gold for patterns against another fine technician in a closely contested contest & Mariskha Visagie won a silver for patterns in the ladies division & later on also won a bronze medal in the ladies sparring division. Mr Stuart Anslow, the Academies instructor also won a gold medal in the black belt pattern division.

Throughout the day the students of Rayners Lane gave fine performances of their Taekwon-do skills & even those that weren't lucky enough to win trophies still showed fine form & good sportsmanship.

In the team event we didn`t fair so well. We entered a few 2 man teams but only one placed. Tigers 3, consisting of Patvez Sultan & Jafar Mahir did well & won a bronze, going out to the very experienced black belt team from Edmonton.

The day ended with 'King Of The Ring'. A contest that had all the adult competitors lined up for a shot at a single trophy. It was a sudden death contest in the early rounds, and a point system in place from the semi finals onwards. After many of the fighters had been eliminated there were three finalists left. These took part in a round robin contest to decide the winner. Of the three there was one fighter from Kent & two from Rayners Lane Academy. Parvez Sultan from the Academy had done exceptionally well to get through to the final three from about forty that entered. The King Of the Ring contest was eventually won by the Academies instructor, Mr Stuart Anslow which rounded off the day rather nicely.

Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy produces students of exceptionally high quality which can be seen everywhere they go by the amount of trophies they always return with. The Academy holds dear the traditional values of martial arts, that of courtesy, integrity, perserverence & honour.