NEW EXPERIENCE!

10:33am Wednesday 18th July 2001

TWO English Taekwondo Schools students performed outstandingly well at an international tournament, in New York, coming home with three golds, a silver, and two bronzes between them.

Matt Johnson, 15, and Kylie Johncock, 13, were chosen by the English Taekwondo Schools club to compete in the championship. It was a good test for them as they both did well in the Northern Championships in Manchester.

Matthew, from Bromley, had won a gold in the junior black belt patterns and a silver in the senior black belt patterns, while Kylie, from Catford, won a gold in patterns and a silver in sparring. Matthew also won a silver for sparring at the recent AIMAA World Championships in Dublin in 2000.

Matthew's dad Robert, explains how his son entered the New York competition.

He said: “I took Matt back to training and was greeted by my son's instructor, Tony Williams, who said there was another competition for Matthew, which would be good for him.

“Where's that then?” I replied, “New York” he says. “You're having a laugh”, I said.

“But a few weeks later, thanks to some generous sponsorship from Tony Williams, me, my wife Anne, Matt and Kylie, were off to the town of Fulton, upstate New York, home of Master Tom Merritt's International Taekwondo Union and venue for his association's annual open martial arts tournament, the Battle of Up-State New York.

“Our anticipation was building with special guest appearances due from Cynthia Rothrock, Don 'the Dragon' Wilson, Grand Master Pan Qing Fu, Sifu Vincent Lyn, and David 'Grasshopper' Carradine.”

Also there from England was Adam Porter, who runs the Kingston Taekwondo School (01737 219834).”

The event started with 300 competitors from around the world including the USA, Canada, Austria, England, Puerto Rico and even some in middle-eastern dress.

Matt and Kylie won a well-deserved bronze, earning compliments from the Austrian coach and narrowly missing out on gold and silver, which went to a team from the USA. The gold winner was a female karate team from Austria, whose trainer had been coaching for ten years!

Matt and Kylie both went on to win gold in their own respective pattern divisions, with both the judges and Austrian coach complementing Matt on his pattern and kicks.

The weapons and breaking divisions went down well with the enthusiastic and receptive American audience. Several high-ranking martial artists in their fields also treated everyone to an entertaining display of self-defence techniques.

In the 15-16 years male black-belt sparring Matt, a 1st Dan, won silver when he was narrowly pipped to gold by a score of 2-1 by Dan Christian Tipton (USA), who had been inducted as Black-Belt of the Year into Master Merritt's World-Wide Hall-of-Fame in 2000.

Kylie, a second Dan, won gold in the female sparring 12-14 years black-belt division despite being up against bigger opposition in the final.

The junior weapons' division was also keenly and skilfully contested with Kylie receiving a consolation trophy along with the other non-medal winners.

For more information on the English Taekwondo Schools, call Tony Williams on 020 8303 4362.