The University of Witwatersrand’s Tang Soo Do Club hosted a prestigious event at the Multi-Purpose Sports Hall on the Wits East Campus. Thirteen of the club’s students participated in the Tang Soo Do National Championships and earned an outstanding total of 33 medals.
This national championship gathered athletes from all across the country who trained in all forms of different Korean martial arts. From Cape Town to Limpopo, and North West to Mpumalanga, Korean martial artists came together to compete as a fierce fighting family.
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The Wits students practise the art of combat tang soo do, a martial art famous for jumping, spinning, and complex kicks, in combination with powerful hand techniques, which are great for self-defence and strength training.
The club has been running at Wits since 1989, and Master Gregory Hart has been the instructor since 1994, celebrating 30 years of excellence from this club, which has produced several national, and even world champions.
Hart stated that it is wonderful to see this calibre of an event back at Wits after the forced break of Covid-19, and other challenges that tang soo do, and other sports, have faced over the past few years. “It is great to see Wits sport supporting these student-athletes by giving them access to this nice venue, and permission to host this level of event.”
Athletes competed in various divisions ranging from beginners to advanced adult black belts. They showed off their skills in different categories, namely traditional forms, weapons forms, point sparring, combat weapons sparring, and continuous sparring.
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After excelling in each of these categories the club hauled 15 gold medals, 13 silver medals, and five bronze medals.
This competition displayed the variety of specialised kicks present in Korean martial arts, encouraging athletes to make use of their spectacular kicks such as spinning 360°, double kicks, and jumping kicks.
They were led by veteran Hart, a seventh dan, who has won gold in both the forms and fighting divisions for over 35 years, in the black belt division. He will travel to Wales to compete in the UK Invitational Tang Soo Do Championships.
The rest of the athletes will take part in the SA Korean Martial Arts Gauteng provincial championships.
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