Impressive medal haul for Inverness Tang Soo Do at Highland Championships in Alness
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Inverness Tang Soo Do celebrated 39 medals in total at the Highland Championships last weekend.
Taking place at Alness Leisure Centre, the 15-strong Inverness squad were part of more than 100 competitors at the event from Scotland and England.
It was an extremely successful outing for the Inverness club too, taking home 13 gold medals, nine silver medals and 17 bronze medals.
Black belt Laura Stewart was the most prolific individual, as the 20-year-old won in the sparring, nunchaku and team forms disciplines, finished as runner up in the knife, bo staff and forms and third in creative weapons.
Teenagers Emmie Denoon (16) and Jak Keir (15) each claimed three medals apiece, with the former winning in team forms and finishing third in knife and sparring, while the latter picked up a hat-trick of bronze medals in the bo staff, knife and sparring events.
12-year-old black belts Addison Keir and Connor McInnes and 13-year-old Forbes Gajda each also made it on to multiple podiums. McInnes won the forms category and finished third in knide, Gajda picked up two silver medals in knife and sparring, while Keir got two bronze medals in forms and nunchaku.
Rowen Anderson (21) was also a victor in team forms.
Brown belt Blythe Gajda claimed three medals, as the 10-year-old won in the bo staff and came third in sparring and team forms.
Lily Fraser won big among the green belts, claiming gold in forms and sparring, second in bo staff and nunchaku while there was also a bronze for the 11-year-old in team forms.
Layla Urquhart also got a bronze in team forms, to go with her bronze in bo staff and silver medal in sparring.
The youngest medallist from Inverness was another of the green belts, six-year-old Lewis Fraser who won golds in bo staff and sparring.
Orange belts Max Wheeler (8), Christopher Macleod (10) and Declan Lawrence (9) won gold in sparring, gold in forms and bronze in forms respectively.
Finally, white belt Aleena Khoratty picked up three medals of her own, with the eight-year-old winning silver in bo staff and bronze in both forms and sparring.
Master instructor Kelly O'Connor was delighted with the squad's performance overall, despite some late call-offs due to Covid.
Next up for Inverness Tang Soo Do is a trip to Newcastle this weekend to compete in the British Championships, where more medals will be up for grabs at the larger competition.
