Mighty Morrell retains Open British Championship Title

On the last weekend of November, Team Warrior headed up to compete at this year’s Open British – held at the Ravenscraig Regional Sport Facility in Motherwell, Scotland.  The competition was attended by 721 competitors from 54 clubs and 7 countries: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Netherlands, Finland and Uzbekistan. 

Our youngest team warrior representative, Francesco was on first thing in the morning and performed brilliantly in his debut competition outside of England – managing to secure 3rd place in patterns and 2nd place in sparring. Soody who also acts as our fantastic team photographer, and his wife Jay competed too, winning her patterns division adding the Open British title to the English National Championships she had secured just two weeks earlier.

Due to higher entry numbers than expected, timings were delayed and it was a long and arduous day for the competitors. However, that didn’t stop Archie “Mighty” Morrell (reigning Open British champion), who managed to win two rounds of patterns before losing in the third and then waited 8 ½ hours for his sparring to begin. This had little effect on his performance though, as he dominated his first two rounds to get into the final with a Scottish fighter where he showed composure and great confidence for the entirety of the round – which eventually finished and Mighty’s hand was raised once again this year as he retains his Open British title in the Junior -68kg category.

The Warriors hadn’t finished quite yet though, as Jaymie Phow competes in the (enter division) and battles her way through two rounds to end up in the final against 2018 European Cup medallist from The Netherlands. Unfortunately, the result did not go her way but her performance was very notable and an improvement on her last, which is something we’re always striving to do at De Silva Taekwondo.

Overall, the competition was great and so we’re our competitors who showed great heart and performed brilliantly. We can’t thank coaches Mr. de Silva and Mr. Thomas who travelled up with us and stayed at the venue the whole day, helping out and making sure the warriors were ready to rumble!

What a way to end our international competition calendar for 2018.