CONGRATULATIONS to all Torfaen Taekwondo Club students who took part in the recent British Championships (30 November). It was held in Worcester Arena, with 1300 competitors from around the UK taking part in the last tournament in the TAGB calendar. The club took home seven gold, 10 silver and nine bronze medals from the individuals events. These were accompanied by another gold, two silver and a bronze medal from the teams sparring event.

A junior international teams event was also held for the first time in the British Championships this year. Maya Levan was part of the junior girls Wales team, which won the gold medal, after beating the England team. Kian Griffin, Jordan Constance, Kieran Sullivan and Cameron Ferrie were selected to represent the junior boys Wales team and they took the bronze medals.

The gold medals went to Jasmin Levan (girls red belt patterns), Maya Levan (girls blackbelt lightweight sparring), Rallis Farfarakis (men yellow belt patterns), Lauren Maddocks (girls green belt peewee sparring), Holly Davies (girls green belt middleweight sparring), Kieran Sullivan (boys black belt middleweight sparring) and Cameron Ferrie (boys black belt heavyweight sparring).

Frazer Morgan (boys yellow belt tinytot sparring), Megan Farfarakis (girls yellow belt patterns), Jill Wallace (ladies yellow belt patterns), Kirstie Lewis (ladies green belt heavyweight sparring), Andrew Jones (men blue belt lightweight sparring), Catty Langford (girls red belt patterns and girls red belt peewee sparring), Maya Levan (girls black belt patterns), Rita Levan (ladies black belt patterns) and Lee Griffin (men black belt patterns) were the silver medallists.

Meanwhile the bronze medals went to Jasmin Levan (girls red belt peewee sparring), Sofea Levan (girls black belt peewee sparring), Megan Farfarakis (girls yellow belt lightweight sparring), Grace Cole (girls yellow belt lightweight sparring), Lewis Purcell (boys green belt peewee sparring), Scarlett Pearson (girls blue belt middleweight sparring), Jade Lewis (ladies blue belt middleweight sparring), Michael Grout (men blue belt heavyweight sparring) and Jamie Sullivan (men black belt lightweight sparring).

In the teams event, team Megan and Grace took the gold medal. Silver medals went to team Cameron F. and team Cameron H and William, whereas team Annabell, Mollie and Libby took the bronze medal.

"It has been an exciting and a proud moment for the club, with five of it's members selected to represent Wales in the international teams event," said Tao Levan, the instructor of Torfaen Taekwondo Club. "All of them have been training really hard to achieve the best results they could. Sofea Levan also took her best black belt grading award, the seventh for the Club. It has been one of our finest moment in the club," he added.

The club trains every Monday in Cwmbran Stadium, Thursday in Cwmbran, Fairwater, and Tuesday and Friday in Pontypool Active Living Centre. For further information, contact Mr Levan (sixth degree black belt) on 01633270943 or 07979037616.