2023 BTF English Championships

An early morning on Sunday 11th June saw a team of umpires, coaches and competitors from Nuneaton Taekwon-Do set out to the English Championships in Hereford.  The June heatwave did not stop the 7 students from Nuneaton TKD bringing their best performances to the mats to compete in Patterns, Sparring, Special Technique and Power and the team picked up 9 medals between them. 

It was a tough championship with some of the best athletes from around the country gathered together and there were some excellent performances from Nuneaton TKD students.

In the Blackbelt Veteran divisions Mr Detelin Dimitrov faced off against England Competitor Mr Steve Fedor in the Finals successfully beating him to fly the flag for both Nuneaton and his home country Bulgaria.  In the <80kg Sparring he faced a tough division and unfortunately drew the eventual Gold medal winner from Uttoxeter in the semi-finals so had to settle for Bronze.

Samantha Hill took to the mat in the Veteran Ladies Colour Belt divisions and stormed to victory in both her Patterns and Sparring divisions winning Gold in both against some tough opponents.

After an early upset in the Junior Male Patterns, 15 year old Datch Nayager came back to win Silver in the Junior Male +80kg Sparring division.  Excellent result for Datch as not only did he move up to spar in the Blackbelt division, he faced England competitor Alex Kami Hawkings from Thames Valley in the Final who proved to be a tough opponent.

Leah Basey stormed to Gold in the Junior Female Sparring dispatching a tough competitor from Wirral Taekwon-Do in the Final, adding to her Bronze from Patterns earlier in the day.

Juniors George and Felix rounded out the day winning Bronzes in both of their Sparring divisions amongst some tough competition and adding to Team Nuneaton TKD's final medal tally of 9 medals.  Finally a special mention for our youngest competitor Darius who competed in the Children’s pre-TKD tournament in Patterns and Dragon Tails Sparring and narrowly missing out on the medal rounds.

Full medal results:

Mr Detelin Dimitrov - Gold patterns, Bronze sparring

Ms Sam Hill - Gold patterns, Gold sparring

Datch - Silver sparring

Leah - Bronze patterns, Gold sparring

George - Bronze sparring

Felix - Bronze sparring

Joining them on the day were the team of Nuneaton TKD umpires:

Ms Danielle Williams V

Ms Natalie Williams IV

Ms Violetta Harlow V

Ms Petrina Lancaster I  

Mr George Wright I

Nuneaton TKD students will next take to the mats in October at the UK Championships in Solihull on Sunday 15th October.