The club took 7 competitors to the UTF British International Open. This was a very large and high standard event, with over 400 players in the sparring alone.The three poomsae competitors had a long wait before competing but were eventually up. Sian Reilly narrowly missed out on a medal coming fourth in the Female Cadet Cat B Division. Next up was Alex Walker who competed well and made it through to the final winning the Silver Medal in the Combined Male Cadet/Junior Cat B Division. Last competitor was Coleen Reilly in the Female Senior Cat A Division. In a division of extremely high standard her performances in the final of Taebaek and Pyongwon won her the bronze medal.The sparring opened with Alex Newman in the PeeWee -25kg Cat B division. Alex started strongly in his quarter final and established a lead but unfortunately took a blow to the head and was deemed to be unable to continue. Next up was Neo Botha, having already won the Combined PeeWee -31/35kg Cat C division, she competed in the -35kg Cat B division. She played a tough match in the quarter final against the eventually gold medalist. Despite eventually losing 12-6 she showed great spirit and scored some strong points in a weight division and grade division above her normal one. Carys Redman-White competing in the Junior -59kg moved up to Cat A for the first time and as red belt faced playing against some of the best in the country. Unfortunately she drew the eventual gold medalist in the quarter final, and lost against a really good player.
Final competitor was Callum Walker playing in the Junior -55kg Cat B division. Callum easily defeated both his quarter final and semi final opponents winning through to the final without dropping a point. However the final was a much tougher affair with Callum initially going behind. However by the end of the first round he had fought back and taken a lead, which he build on in the second round to win the gold medal with a final 12-9 score.
Well done to all the OBTKD competitors.