Taekwondo tournament this Sunday

Some of the action from an earlier Taekwondo tournament. Photo: Chris Callinan.

More than 100 competitors from seven regional Taekwondo clubs will be descending on Aquinas College Action Centre this Sunday for the ITF Midlands Regional Tournament.

Past world champions will be among the representatives from Silla TKD (Te Puna), BOP TKD Academy (Arataki), Hwa Rang TKD (Tauranga), Te Karaka TKD (Gisborne), Cambridge TKD, Te Awamutu TKD, and Hamilton TKD.

Black belt Vivienne Wood from Silla TKD will be among those there, and says spectators are welcome.

'We do our fundamentals and patterns in the morning, before breaking for lunch and carrying on with sparring in the afternoon,” she says.

'We have the mini-kids too, which is always fun to watch. They're about four to seven years old, and they do power punches and sparring, although it's non-contact and quite funny to watch. They also do their fundamental moves and are judged on those.”

She says there are two different styles of Taekwondo, which can be as politically-charged as the Korean peninsula from which the martial art originates.

'There's two different styles, ITF and WTF. The latter is the Olympics style, while we do ITF, which has its own world championship. The split came about during the war, with WTF affiliated more with North, and ITF with the South. But both have spread throughout the world.”

The tournament is scheduled to start at 9am, with all events expected to conclude by 4pm.

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