FOUR members of Wyre Forest Taekwondo’s Hagley squad travelled to Newport Arena on Sunday to compete in the popular Welsh Regional championships.

This closed event is for members of the Taekwondo Association of Great Britain from Wales, but invitations are often put out to other TAGB instructors who are affiliated with Welsh schools.

Wyre Forest instructor Katie Billingham has attended many seminars in Wales, invited Welsh world masters in for seminars and graded and trained under the TAGB's head of Wales master Gianni Peros.

Through her connections, Billingham was able to secure an invite for her sparring squad who are keen to compete as much as possible before the Taekwondo International World Championships this July in Birmingham.

Due the busy Taekwondo calendar at this time of year, the squad was just four strong on the day, and down to three participants as Amy Perks was unable to compete on the day due to illness.

She attended anyway to support her father and brother, who all train together at their local TAGB school network. Both put in outstanding performances to earn matching trophies in their respective divisions, both narrowly missing out on the win in their final and collecting silver.

Regular squad member Charlie Collyer put in his best patterns performance to date, although the standard was too high to make the finals. But he showed his strength in his sparring division, still standing as one of the smallest in his category he battled his way to third place after many gruelling rounds.

Collyer’s third event of the day was tag team sparring where he coached some young boys new to the event and led the team to a silver, scoring with some very impressive techniques for his young age.

The club continues with its busy schedule, with more national training, star gradings and coloured belt gradings set to go ahead this weekend. For more information contact Katie Billingham on 07885 293088, email info@wyreforesttaekwondo.com or see wyreforesttaekwondo.com