The 2016 North East Challenge Cup (7th NECC) was hosted by Northern Taekwon-Do Academies (NTA) at the Aberdeen Sports Village, Aberdeen on Saturday 3rd September. This was the second year that this event was held at this International Venue. 2016 also boasted its largest participants with 315 Competitors in 121 active divisions, 38 Umpires, 36 Coaches with around 200 Supporters cheering them on. Taking part this year were 19 groups, schools and clubs competing in Pattern, Sparring, Pre-Arranged Free Sparring, Power Test and Special Technique. The Tournament was held over seven rings with one additional emergency ring for Special Technique on standby.
It was very nice to see old friends again from Inverness, Nairn, Forres, Buckie, Whitburn and new ones from Monaghan TKD in Glasgow, and United Taekwon-Do from the Central Belt. Also returning to the event was Mr Brett Stronach with his team from the North East of England.
With the introductions completed at 09:45, the tournament began with Pattern for under 9’s, Power test for Adults kup grades and Special Technique for Teen kup grades. The tournament was well contested with strong divisions in the under 9 and 9-12 categories.
The tournament continued right up until most of the under 9’s completed their sparring and all patterns for kup grades had been concluded. The Umpires broke for lunch of home-made soup and sandwiches to prepare them for the long afternoon session.
At around 15:00 the arena was changed down to three matted areas as many of the Umpires were blackbelt competitors. The teens red/black belt divisions were very well attended and this provided a good training run for those going to the World Cup in October.
The atmosphere throughout the day was friendly but competitive and the Umpires were kept happy by filter coffee on tap along with a selection of tasties.
The event closed at 18:45 and a host of helpers cleared the hall and stored all equipment within the hour, so it was off home us and a wave cheerio to all the travellers from up North and down South.
Northern Taekwon-Do Academies would like to thank everyone for their support and look forward to next year.