I will start my blog this week with a positive by congratulating 2 TAGB black belts, first of all Amy Truesdale who was selected to compete in the WTF tae kwon do para world champions in Aruba and came away with the silver medal in her weight division and Anna Williams who won a gold medal in the junior black belt patterns in the German open championships, they are both students of Mr. Richard Saunders, so well done girls and Richard. The British championships on Sunday was the largest entry we have had for a few years, but thanks to the organisation and the hard work of all the officials we were still out of the building by 6 p.m. which I think was an incredible feat with that amount of competitors: 1,500. At the recent European championships in Poland they did not even have half that amount of competitors and they finished at midnight! There has been a few moans on social networking sites but mostly by people who would not have a clue as to how to organise an event of that size. People should remember at the world championships next year the event will be split over 3 days, so there will never be that amount of competitors in the Skydome at one time and not as many working areas either. The reason we went to Coventry was because all the foreign competitors who came very long distances to the last world championships for instance from Argentian, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa all complained about Telford, they said there was not enough choice of hotels, not enough places outside the event to eat and nothing at all to do entertainment wise. Remember for these people travelling vast distances its an experience not just a tournament and real competitors do not both about the venue that much they just get on with it and compete, just ask Warren Vice! The British & English championships are just trial runs so we get it right for the world champs next year.
