Borders taekwondo club win 16 medals at Scottish open championships

The Berwickshire club had two teams competing at the Taekwondo Association of Great Britain event at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility.

Making up the first, called the Sunny Pigs, were the club’s youngest members – Jackson Perks and Annabelle Pitts, both six, and Violette Jakovleva, seventh – competed in the ninth to seventh kup divisions and winning a gold medal.

The second, the Three Little Pigs, consisted of Heidi Blake, 14, and Joshua Davidson and Bertie Foster, both ten, competing in the next division up and taking home bronze.

Tag-team sparring events at the North Lanarkshire championships saw more members joining forces to take on opposition from elsewhere in Scotland – Annabelle and Violette, competing a weight class up but still winning bronze; Heidi and Nikolette Jakovleva, 13; and Jackson and Michael Valuta, seven.

Every Grantshouse member present took part in individual patterns events, with Michael taking home bronze in the boys’ yellow belt category; Oliver Lee, seven, winning silver in the boys’ green belt class; and Annabelle going for gold in the girls’ yellow belt contest.

Solo fighters also signed up for individual sparring events, with Richard ‘Rusty’ Lee competing in the men’s black belt class, his daughter Jessica, ten, fighting in the girls’ lightweight blue-red division, wife Anna picking up bronze at ladies’ green belt level despite stepping up to a higher weight class.

Fiona Perks brought home a heavyweight women’s yellow belt bronze medal.

Violette collected another medal, a silver, in the tiny-tot girls’ yellow belt sparring event.

Mia Prescott-Clements, 16, fought in the cadet girls’ black belt division, her first competition since earning third star accreditation earlier this year, and won a bronze medal.

“I’m incredibly proud of all my students,” said instructor Katy Pitts, a fifth dan.

“It takes a lot of courage to stand in the ring, and no matter how they placed, they are all winners to me.”