Boar-loving Taekwondo hit new heights

Taking inspiration from Team GB’s success at the London Olympics last summer, the club has transformed markedly over the last 12 months, earning numerous medals and putting Taekwondo back into the spotlight.

A large part of that transformation is owed to second year Physics student Benjamin Slater. On top of his degree, he has taken to becoming the club’s full time instructor and teaches for over six hours a week, selflessly putting his students’ needs before his own.

It is no understatement to say that he is a vast improvement on previous instructors and he has helped the club retain notably more members than previous years.

Having increased the teaching quality, it is of no surprise that the club was prepared to enter twice as many competitions this year and delivered back a large number of medals from each. Most recently, the club won the Student Nationals by a landslide score and has begun to increase the presence of ITF Taekwondo in universities, with several other universities seeking advice from us.

We even received a request from the British Student Taekwondo Federation to assist in moulding the future of student Taekwondo.

Leading the team into many of the tournaments was Jonny May, who has now been officially recognised as Team Captain. Not only did Jonny coach members and boost morale, but he is also an outstanding martial artist in his own right, achieving gold himself in many of our tournaments.

Jonny was recently invited to a select programme searching for national stars in preparation for the next Olympic Games and only narrowly missed out on the final 30, having beaten some high calibre fighters in his trial stages.

He is now preparing for the TAGB World Championships this summer at the Skydome in Coventry, where we wish him the very best of luck.

After a year riddled with firsts, including our first seminar and first Student Nationals tournament, it was only fitting that we ended last term with a trip to Florence as our first away tour, a well deserved holiday for all. Whilst we may have cheated our new exec of all these firsts, we know that they will have firsts of their own to propel the club forwards, and I for one can’t wait.