8 medals won at the Taekwon-do World Championships in England!

We return from this year’s World Championships happy and motivated to continue working. More than 2,000 participants from several countries, over 300 judges, 30 mats and our phenomenal 6 competitors. We achieved more than we intended, which proves one thing – reality verifies our desires and, with the right commitment, may turn out better than what we dreamed of.

We travelled to England with the ZS PUT team for the Open Taekwon-do International World Championships, which took place on 21 and 22 July in Birmingham.

 

The Championships were well prepared, and their course can also be considered successful. The organizers rose to the occasion. The judges also did a good job – including our Rafał Żelazko – there were no major mishaps, and very few minor ones. That is why we are all the more pleased with the successes of our athletes. Below are our team members and their results in the respective categories:

Karolina Nowak – (PUT national team) seniors, black belts -55 kg

– 2nd place, light-contact sparring

– 3rd place, semi-contact sparring

– 2nd place, national team sparring

Adam Zięba – (PUT national team) seniors, black belts -64 kg

– 3rd place, light-contact sparring

Michał Krupa – seniors, black belts -70kg

– no medal

Grzegorz Pajda – juniors, blue belts, -168 cm

– 2nd place, semi-contact sparring

Michał Klimek – juniors, blue belts -168 cm

– 3rd place, semi-contact sparring

Mikołaj Chrząszcz – juniors, blue belts -152 cm

– 3rd place, semi-contact sparring

– 2nd place, tag team sparring

Rafał Żelazko – judge

Mikołaj Kotowicz – coach

Everyone deserves great congratulations. It should be noted that Karolina Nowak repeated her success from two years ago and once again won individual silver! We hope that at the next Championships she will reach for gold. Coach Mikołaj Kotowicz believes that this is well within her capabilities. It is also worth mentioning that Grzegorz Pajda, Michał Klimek and Mikołaj Chrząszcz began their taekwon-do journey as early as preschool, when they joined Małe Smoki. As you can see, nurturing and developing a passion does not go to waste.

When the competition ended, as tradition dictates, we went to the party organized for the participants by the tournament organizers. Nobody stood on the sidelines; everyone found something for themselves. Since this was an international event, there were also Polish touches. The song representing our country was titled “Ona tańczy dla mnie” by the band Weekend. So it is hardly surprising that everyone had a good time.

Although the competition was our main goal, there was also time for a moment of relaxation.

Birmingham – the largest city in Great Britain after London – is also called the British Venice because of its extensive canal system, which, when combined, is longer than the canals in Venice. One of the activities we chose was therefore sightseeing around the city by waterbus. Staying with the aquatic theme, we visited the Sea Life Center to relax before competing. This large aquarium houses more than 2,000 creatures from different parts of the world. We were able to see sharks, penguins and sea turtles, and we even found Nemo! The last, but no less important, matter is the food we ate there. Perhaps it gave us the strength to win. Although these were not typically English dishes, during the trip we ate at Handmade Burger twice.

 

To sum up! In every respect, the trip can be considered successful. The medals we won will motivate us to continue working, while the moment of relaxation meant that this was not a typical competition trip.