2023 XXII ITF World Championships, Astana Kazakhstan

We're so proud of Nuneaton Blackbelt Ella Barnes who recently competed at the XXII ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships in Astana Kazakhstan.  Over 6 days, Ella and five other ITF England athletes competed against the best in the world in Patterns, Sparring and Power.

Day 1 of the competition saw Ella compete in Adult Female I Dan Patterns, where competitors perform Patterns from their grade and those previous and are marked on their technical mastery and artistry during the movements. Competitors must perform two Patterns, one they choose themselves and one chosen for them by the judges, so they must spend many hours in training beforehand to make sure they have mastered all of their techniques.

The I Dan Patterns category is always a challenging one but Ella successfully started her Championships with a win over Kamila Barbossynova of the home nation Kazakhstan. Ella chose Ge Baek as her optional Pattern which is technically difficult Pattern containing many kicks and jumping kicks. Both competitors then performed Toi Gye but it was Ella who progressed through to the second round, winning the match 3-1. 

In the second round, Ella came up against Lillia Mitreva of Bulgaria. Both competitors chose to perform Ge Baek and then Hwa Rang resulting in a split decision across the five judges. After a tie breaker with Toi Gye, Ella won the match 2:1 to progress to the Quarter Finals.

In the Quarter Finals Ella faced the Silver European medallist Vasiliki Liva of Greece. Despite a technical Yul Gok and great performance from Ella, it wasn't to be and Liva progressed through to the semi finals and the medal rounds. 

On Day 2 Ella stepped onto the mat for the Adult Female -57kg Sparring.  It was a great performance from Ella and was always going to be a tough category with 19 competitors across 5 groups.

On Day 2 Ella stepped onto the mat for the Adult Female -57kg Sparring. It was always going to be a tough category with 19 competitors, many of whom have won National or Continental titles.

Similar to the World Cup, Sparring begins with the Group stages where competitors fight in a round robin to determine who goes through to the Knockout stages. 

In the first of the group stages Ella faced experienced competitor, Mahri Agaeva of Turkmenistan. It was a tough spar and the Turkmenistan competitor starting off the match strong, Ella was able to win back points in the second round but the Turkmenistan competitor saw the better of her winning the match by 2 points. 

Next up was the favourite, Hye Jong Son of DPR Korea. Ella fought well but the Korean scored early leaving Ella working hard to make up the points throughout the two rounds. 

In the last of the group stage matches, Ella faced Agostina Romero of Argentina. A close match throughout saw Ella leading for most of the 1st round having scored a jump back kick for 3 points within the first 30 seconds. Romero evened the score and despite starting the 2nd round, Romero just edged through to take the win. A fantastic performance from Ella but it was the Turkmenistan competitor who went through to the knockout stages, ending Ella’s Championships

During the rest of the competition, the other ITF England competitors performed well, with two new World Champions and a Silver medallist meaning that England finished out the tournament 10th out of 41 countries with just 6 competitors. 

Ella now looks forward to the 2024 European Championships in Koper Slovenia, where she hopes to compete alongside other Nuneaton Taekwon-Do hopefuls.