On Sunday April 14th, 8 Inverness Tang Soo Do students participated in a gruelling 3-hour Black Belt Grading.
The Grading itself, was one of the largest Black Belt Gradings that Scotland Tang Soo Do has ever hosted, with a total of 12 people grading to Black Belt and beyond throughout this area.
Master Jan De-Vry hosted and conducted the Grading, and stated at the end that he felt that the technical ability of all those Grading was of a very high standard and handed out the new black belts proudly.
This Grading was especially memorable and monumental for Inverness Instructor Kelly O'Connor as her husband, Leigh O'Connor, graded for his Second Dan Black Belt, and 7 of their Inverness Students graded to First Dan Black Belt. Karen Bissell, Isobel Geegan, Darryl Geegan, Darren Shearer, Malcolm McPhedran, Eilidh MacLeod and Eleanor Plummer all successfully achieved the status of Black Belt in the Korean Martial Art of Tang Soo Do, meaning that the Inverness club now has a total of 11 Black Belts training regularly.
Over the weekend of April 20th, Inverness Tang Soo Do took the long journey down to Sawtry in Cambridgeshire to compete in the British Championships with a team of 6 people. The Championship itself had over 200 competitors, and the 6 strong Inverness Squad were very successful in their divisions, taking home a total of 11 trophies, which included the British Junior Grand Champion Cup!
Again, Inverness Instructor's Kelly and Leigh O'Connor had a proud moment and big smiles, when Black Belt student, 11-year old James Fraser won two 1st places and a 3rd place in the Forms, Sparring and Weapons divisions. Resulting in him winning the overall British Junior Grand Champion, because he had scored the most points over all the Juniors during the Competition.
Other Inverness winners at the Championships included, Instructor Leigh O'Connor in the Black Belt Heavy Weight Male Division winning two 3rd places, in Weapons and Sparring. Black Belt Stephen Mezals in the Light-Middle Weight Division winning a 2nd place in Sparring, with Black Belt Malcolm McPhedran coming in close behind with a 4th place. Blue Belt and brother of James, Kevin Fraser just lost out to his big brother in Sparring, but still came home with 2nd place. Red Belt Gillian Dunbar was like lightning in her Sparring Division and beat all the other girls to win a 1st place. Beginner, Lynsey Cooper, who has only just graded for her Orange Belt, and was competing in her first competition, won two 3rd places in Forms and Sparring.
