UoN Taekwondo jump the national University rankings with huge medal haul

University of Nottingham Taekwondo have leapt up the national University rankings after a huge medal haul at last weekend’s Challenge Cup in Birmingham. 

Taking a small team of just ten competitors to the British Student Taekwondo Federation (BSTF) event, Nottingham won 18 medals in total to take them to second place in the overall standings.

Big performances came from University of Nottingham sport scholar and Cypriot national team member Giannis Strouthou who won two A Grade golds and Thangaes Nithirajah and Alice Cardall, both fresh off their strong performances in the summer’s European Universities Sports Association (EUSA) tournament, also topped their events. Anna Pafiti and Eun Cho added to the A Grade tally with two silvers and a bronze between them in the female competition.

In the B class events, Nottingham came away with even more silverware. Club President Sam Vickers won two golds and Kevin Zhan, Sam Christelow, Francesca Spagna and Obriem Sim all posted podium finishes.

Club President Sam Vickers commented:

“We’re really pleased with our finish at the Challenge Cup – it was a really strong performance from the ten who travelled to compete especially when up against much larger teams. It’s great to now be in second place in the overall BSTF rankings, but we’ve got our sights firmly set on going one better before the end of the season!”

“A big thank you to our coaches Wenqi Li and Reza Mani and instructor Gary Skinner for making sure we were in the best shape possible heading into the competition.”

UoN Taekwondo are now back in training, preparing for the BSTF Lions Cup in February at Nottingham Trent University, which will be the first chance for many new members to compete after their first grading this month.

For the more experienced competitors, the focus is on Student Nationals from 10 – 11 March where qualification for the EUSA tournament is at stake. More University of Nottingham students will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the four athletes who travelled to Portugal last year.

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For more information on Performance sport at the University of Nottingham visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/sport/performance or contact Alex Perry, Assistant Director of Sport, at alexander.perry@nottingham.ac.uk.

To get involved with UoN Taekwondo, find out more via their website. here.