EIGHT gold, seven silver and five bronze medals were the rewards of a successful day for Cadoxton Taekwondo School students at the Global Taekwondo International's British open championships.

Held at Cheltenham Leisure Centre, the event attracted more than 350 competitors from all over the UK and started with traditional forms, where young Thea Cunningham gained a credible third place.

Following the pattern sections, there was the point and continuous sparring and, in the pee wee and yellow belt section, Thea took second place.

Maddison Allen also took second in the junior yellow belt category. Jessica Blackley fought well before losing out on third place by one point, while older brother Mason took second in his category.

Competing in the girls’ black belt point and continuous sparring categories were Jasmine Sullivan and Lucy Newman and, although they lost out in continuous sparring, the former emerged with a credible third in the point section. More experienced Lucy reached the finals of both the point and continuous sparring categories where she took second places.

Finding themselves in the same continuous sparring blue belt category were Jake Quigley, Cody Jacobsen, Cian Allen and Evan Baron. Up against much bigger opponents, Cody and Jake were edged out this time, while Evan and Cian met in the final, with Cian emerging victorious.

Jamie Halford fought through to the final of the men’s heavyweight point sparring final and proved a winner despite being up against a much bigger opponent.

Competing in the same women’s lightweight point and continuous sparring categories were Anita Sheppard and Keita Enfield and, in the final, the latter took the honours. In the continuous sparring category, Anita was beaten into third place by a serving British sergeant, while Keita again took first place. Anita also competed in the women’s veterans point sparring where she finished in top spot.

The biggest and toughest categories of the day were the boys’ black belt point and continuous sparring sections and, with Matthew Bennett, Bradley Halford and Thomas Haysham competing, it was without doubt the tournament highlight. Thomas competed in the black belt middleweight section, while Matthew and Bradley were in the light heavyweight categories. Gold medal-winning Thomas dominated the point-sparring category, while, in the continuous category, he was beaten into third place. Luckily, Bradley and Matthew were at either end of the point and continuous sparring draws, and eventually met in the light heavyweight final. Both produced great displays of taekwondo, with Matthew emerging the winner. Matthew was eliminated from the black belt light heavyweight point sparring, while Bradley fought his way through to the final where he completely outpointed his opponent for first place.