Dorset Championships results

We made it to Dorset after a VERY late submission of our entry forms. It's quite a drive from where we live, and my wife decided to use that excuse to take the whole family down to stay in a hotel which meant we were better rested before arriving for weigh in on the Sunday. The competition was as big as I'd expected - there were something like 300 competitors there and the place was packed out. The competition was confined to a single large hall, but the sports centre had people wandering around in Doboks & sparring gear just about everywhere you turned.

James didn't fare very well at this one unfortunately - he seemed to be phased by the size of his opponent who was a fair bit bigger than him. He also seems to have a bad habit of looking at the scoreboard, or at me throughout the round. Had some harsh words with him about that! He lost by a single point, and I'm sure we can get a better performance next time from him.

I fared slightly better winning my first bout with a technical knock out (turning kick to the head) which at least broke my "duck" that's been plaguing my tournament fighting recently. That win got me into the final as the category I was in (veterans!) had only four competitors. I didn't manage gold, and got quite a kicking in the final. I did, however, score a couple of points and did manage to get almost to the end of round two before my opponent got the pre-requisite 7 point lead to win the match.

I also finally met Phill Payne as he was there doing photography. I've known him "online" for over a year now, but it's always great to meet someone face to face. Phill is a highly accomplished Martial Artist from Halifax in the north of England. He holds a 4th Dan in WTF Taekwondo, a 1ST Dan in JuJitSu and is involved in UK Muay Tai as well. How he gets any time at all to work on his TKD news site is a mystery to me. Phill got a great photo of my head shot in the first bout, which as soon as I get a copy of I will add to this post.

I came away feeling quite good from a personal point of view despite the failure to get gold.

***UPDATE***

Got the photo, hopefully it speaks for itself! This kick won the match (technical knock out).


Picture courtesy of FIMP Media Limited, the Martial Arts Photographers. There's also a full table of the competition results.