2023 Taekwondo International World Championships

2023 Taekwondo International World Championships

Daniella Kaufman – quadruple gold (Individual Patterns, Individual Sparring, Team Patterns, Team Sparring	Daventry Tigers first opened its doors to students on 20th April 2012, established by Mark and Sarah Robson.  It was conceived as a feeder club for Master White’s classes and initially only accepted students between the ages of 4 and 8-years-old.  They took their first team to the World Championships in 2013 without success.  In 2016 they fared better, returning with 4 medals, one Silver and 3 Bronzes.  By 2018 the team had grown and so did their successes, returning this time with 3 Golds, 3 Silvers and 4 Bronzes.  In 2020, the Robsons bought Master White’s club, retaining him as a consultant instructor to continue teaching the growing number of Black Belts in the club.  By now, Mark had also established a club in Woodford Halse and had taken over and grown another sister club in Banbury.  The competition-ready team had grown again, and results in regional and national tournaments were improving exponentially.  ‘There were so many amazing performances, but the story of the tournament must be 10-year-old Daniella Kaufman, who smashed every Junior Black Belt division, winning Gold in Individual Patterns, Gold in Individual sparring, Gold in synchronized patterns and Gold in Tag Team sparring.  She started training as a 3-year-old and all her hard work has finally paid off in spectacular fashion.’
On Friday the 2023 World Championships got underway with the Black Belt musical patterns and Executive Black Belt competitions.  This was new territory for our local black belts, but the medals started to flow immediately with Banbury’s Oliver Griffiths being pipped into Silver in the cadet boys’ musical patterns by a very talented young man from Argentina.  Daventry’s prolific champion, Lauren Hughes added another fantastic Silver in the under 14’s girls’ musical patterns and Harry McDowell a well-deserved Bronze in the under 14 boys’ division.  Friday Competitors: Back row left to right: Oliver Griffiths (Silver in Musical Patterns), Mark Robson, Sarah Robson.  Middle: Lauren Hughes (Silver in Musical Patterns) Selina Yildirim.  Front: Harry McDowell, (Bronze in Musical Patterns), Isabel McDowell and Gina Burgess.
	Saturday was the main day for juniors and adult coloured belt students.  Despite massive divisions across the board, with over 2000 martial artists and thousands of spectators packed into the arena, our local students starred from the beginning.  Winning 23 Golds across a variety of events, and with a total medal count of 60 medals the results far exceeded the wildest dreams of Mr & Mrs Robson.

The hero of the day was Master Jackson White, who was the oldest competitor in the Super Executive Black Belt division for over 50’s by some years.  He led by example, giving a true master class in sparring, winning through 5, 2-round bouts and retaining his World Title at the astonishing age of 69 years old! 

‘I’m still reeling in shock,’ said Mark Robson.  ‘We had to raise a lot of money in sponsorship to help families afford to have the chance to go.  We’re all immensely grateful to the Daventry Rotary Club, who subsidised the team’s suits, Banbury’s Littlehmakes and Datascene companies and Daventry’s ARL Detailing for subsidising the entry fees.  Without them, some families would not have been able to afford to go and our stunning results would not have happened.  I think we did them proud.  Suddenly our clubs are full of World Champions and World Medallists!’

Individual Golds in patterns also went to Phoebe Smith in the girls’ yellow belt youth (11-14-year-old) division, Max Hlavac in the boys’ junior (under 11s) blue belt patterns and Selina Yildirim in the girls’ black belt youth division.  The smallest of these divisions had over 40 competitors, with the black belt girls numbering 61 entrants.  Individual silver medals for patterns were also won by: Holly Jones and Oisin Adams, and bronzes by: Caoimhe Adams, Harry McDowell, Brooke Shafto, and Mr Fabio Simoes.

Sparring is not our clubs’ focus, but it didn’t stop some of our students from fighting their way into the medals.  Daniella’s Gold aside, individual Silvers went to: Mrs Helen Griffiths, Mr James Leaper and Anushka Krishna and Bronzes to: Oisin Adams, Holly Howard, Holly Jones, Morgan Jones, Ashley Kelly, Mr Fabio Simoes, Kai Smith and Luca Wilson.  Some had to fight 4 times just to reach the semi-finals and most only lost to the eventual champions.

Our clubs’ focus running up to the tournament was very much on the team synchronised patterns events.  We saw this as our best shot of developing large numbers of potential champions, as it is quite a specialist discipline… and we were not wrong.  Our students won Gold in every event for under 14’s and Gold in the Black Belt Cadets (15-17-year-olds).

Despite having one of the lowest combined ages of any of the 19 teams entered, Rosa Ardito, Brooke Shafto and Evie-Ann Boyland took Gold in a very close play-off in the yellow/green belt division.  Caoimhe Adams, Bronwyn Harrison and Megan Sills took Gold in the blue/red belt division, beating Kaden Roche, Madison Bull and Maizie Smith into Silver.  Indeed, our teams placed 1^st, 2^ndand 4^th out of the 23 teams entered – almost a clean sweep of medals.  Lauren Hughes, Selina Yildirim and Alara Yildirim also won a play-off for Gold with a superb performance in the hugely competitive black belt youth division.  Daniella Kaufman joined Derin Yildirim and Harry McDowell to take Gold in the black belt under 11’s, while Mabelle Gwilliam, William O’Toole and Banbury’s Ashley Kelly took Gold in the cadet black belt division. 

Even more medals were added in the tag-team sparring events, with a particularly impressive set of Silvers for our men’s team: Fabio Simoes, Liam Fishwick and James Leaper.  Morgan Jones and Alara Yildirim also added Silvers, teaming up on the day with competitors from other clubs and Bronzes were won by Holly Jones, Megan Sills and Anushka Krishna.

Overall, it was an unforgettable weekend for all of our students who competed.