On Sunday we finally had the chance to hold our 4th Bluewave Open Poomsae Championship which had been postponed since June 2020. This was the first British Taekwondo Poomsae Championship since March 2020.
We were honoured to be able to host 32 clubs and 335 competitors for a day of wonderful and friendly competition. We also have the privilege of having three special guests; Maria Miller, MP for Basingstoke and Deane who joined us the start of the event, Ian Leafe Chief Executive Officer of British Taekwondo who was with us all day and Kevin Laing Chair Basingstoke Voluntary Sports Council who joined us at lunchtime. We also had the great benefit of Master Glen Culbert, British Taekwondo Poomsae Referee Director as our Chief Referee who led our team of 29 referees.
The club did enter a small team and all our competitors should be very proud of their performance after such as long break. The Bluewave Competitors were
Sian Reilly – U30 Female Dan Semi-Final
Jonny Hainsworth – U40 Male Dan Bronze Medal
Coleen Reilly – U40 Female Dan Silver Medal
Shane Pearce – K3 1st Senior Male Gold Medal
Isabella Martin – K1 Junior Female Silver Medal
Isabella Martin (with competitors from Nomad and Weymouth) – K1 Junior Female Team Gold Medal
Gerry Reilly/Coleen Reilly) – O31 Pairs Dan Bronze Medal
Gerry Reilly/Jonny Hainsworth/Pradeep Lalung – O31 Male Team Silver Medal
The team were coached by Coleen Reilly and Sian Reilly.
It will be great to be able to field a large home team next year!
Finally, a really big shoutout to our volunteers. This is a large and complex event and needs a lot of volunteers to run successfully. All our competitors doubled up as volunteers which is not easy. The work to start setting up the event began at 12.00 on Saturday and finished with the final airport run for the referees on Monday morning. It was tremendous to have the support of so many Bluewave (and a couple of guest) volunteers, the full team was:- Vergil, Ben, Martin, Caron, Ethan, Tia, Liz, Shane, Laine, Jonathan, Brandon, Mujahid, Shabeer, Isabella, Caroline, Shubbs, Pradeep, Corey, Jonny, Julian, Giordano, Sam, Sushant, Kieran, Lona, Gerry, Lynne, Coleen and Sian.
The feedback we have received from across the country has been brilliant. Well done Bluewave.
Let’s start planning for next year’s 5th Bluewave Open Poomsae Championship which will be part of us celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club.