2019 Scottish Championships

SCOTLANDS FIRST INCLUSIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The ITF Scotland National Championships were held over the weekend of 23-24^thMarch 2019, at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell. It was planned to be a two-day event with the Pre-Junior competition for up to 13 years competing on Saturday, with Juniors, Seniors and Advanced Seniors competing on Sunday. The two-day event allowed more time to be given to the Junior and Senior Advanced competitors where it was possible to have league formats for all sparring categories and a perfect practice time for travelling to the World Championships next month.

For the first time at the weekend ITF Scotland were very pleased to have Junior and Senior categories of students with Additional Support Needs included in the programme.

All registrations were handled by Sportdata Event Technology (SET) to align ITF Scotland with mainstream ITF tournament administration. Although this was a first for ITF Scotland, and the process of transition for the instructors worked well, with all entries being completed on time.

This year’s championships saw an administrative collaboration between the National Association; ITF Scotland, and Allied Association; TKDSL. Master Gordon Wallace 8^thDegree used his previous SET experience to advise, train and support Mrs. Gillian McIlvaney 5^thDegree with the SET Admin processes during registration and competition day.

The competition itself drew 464 competitors from 23 schools across Scotland from both the NA and AA, as well as 4 schools travelling north from England to take part. Over the two days there were 183 categories in Pattern, Sparring, Special Technique and Power, with one team event of Pre-Arranged Free Sparring.

Registration commenced on Friday evening with final numbers being completed on Saturday morning. The day started at 09:15 with Patterns for under sevens and Special technique for the 11-13s and as each category passed all age groups and grades swapped events until all 106 categories finished with sparring on schedule at 16:00.

The hall was deconstructed and reformed for Day Two and all went home at 19:00.

Sunday started at 09:30 with Junior Patterns, Advanced Senior Power Test, Senior Special Technique and our brilliant Additional Support Needs Students. Our ASN’s were directed by Senior Umpire Mr John Munro and directed on the mat by Mr John MacIlvaney. For close to two and half hours they held the audience mesmerized by their courage and perseverance. We would like to thank the instructors of Glasgow East; GMAC Martial Arts and MacGowan’s Blackbelt Academy for their selfless work in preparing these students for the competition.

The morning and early afternoon passed with all Patterns, Power and Special Technique completed. This left the stage for the Junior, Seniors Advanced Level Sparring Leagues. This was a fantastic spectacle of high energy sparring. The Junior Red-Black divisions were very well represented, and all contenders were clearly there to win.

The 2019 ITF Scotland Championships closed with some spectacular Special Technique from Zak Obike (Erskine) and Fergus Alberts (Boydell BBA). It was a fitting tribute to a fantastic competition.

ITF Scotland and TKDSL would like to thank all competitors, coaches, umpires and supporters for a memorable championship in such a highly competitive manner but with such good sportsmanship, courtesy and friendship among everyone.

One of the best we think.

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