A reminder that this Saturday’s ITF Kids class, has been rescheduled and will now take place on Sunday 4th December @ 10.30am instead.
This is due to instructors attending a teaching course. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Once again we extend a great big thank you to Photography by Jason Kimmings, for capturing all the memories & special moments at our 2016 GMAC Annual Awards Evening.
A link to download the photo’s in Hi-Res can be found here. The link to download them will expire on 24th December, we will also add them to our Facebook gallery.
Photography by Jason Kimmings are also offering 10% off all photoshoots if you mention GMAC. Contact him via his website (Link above).
A full report and list of winners will follow this week.
The end of year Black Belt Grading took place on 20th November in Livingston. Four students from GMAC were testing for their 1st Degree’s under the examination panel of Grand Master MacCallum, Mr. John McIlvaney, Mr. Garry Shaw and Mrs. Jackie Timoney, as well as 6 students from Glasgow East, 2 from I-Kick and 1 from GSMA.
After completing the theory part of the exam mid-week all participants passed and progressed forward to the practical exam, which began at 10am. After four and a half hours, we are please to congratulate them on achieving their promotions and would like to announce the following results;
Donatella Fargnoli (GMAC)
Olivia Cunningham (Glasgow East)
Harry Rutherford (Glasgow East)
Bethan Turner (GMAC)
Ciaran Livingstone (GMAC)
Erin Timoney (Glasgow East)
Katelyn Mackie (Glasgow East)
Ethan Donnelly (Glasgow East)
Vicky O’Neill (GSMA)
Ross Cowan (GMAC)
Fraser Penman (I-Kick)
Sean Monteith (I-Kick)
Mark McAdam (Glasgow East)
20 students as well as instructors and supporters travelled south to Newcastle for the Taekwon-Do Association of England Championships on 19th November. This was the last competition in the 2016 calendar, and we certainly went out with a bang collecting 31 medals between the team.
All those taking part gave it their best shot, which is all we ask, although maybe not picking up medals this time, round, lots more experience was gained, and we look forward to developing and working hard in 2017.
Kyle Lynch (Pattern / Sparring / Special Technique)
Jason Munro (Pattern)
James Watson (Sparring)
Adam Weir (Sparring)
Kieran Farrell (Sparring)
Anton McMenemy (Sparring & Power)
Jaimie Singleton (Sparring & Special Technqiue)
Declan McAvoy (Special Technique)
Adam Weir (Special Technique)
Kieran Cain (Pattern & Sparring)
Des Athanasiadou (Sparring)
Lewis McIlvaney (Sparring)
Mhairi Crookston (Sparring)
James Watson (Special Technique)
Declan McAvoy (Sparring)
Hayden McAvoy (Sparring)
Jay Jervis (Sparring)
Declan Laird (Pattern & Sparring)
Des Athanasiadou (Pattern)
Kieran Farrell (Special Technique)
Jay Jervis (Pattern)
Hayden McAvoy (Pattern)
Mhairi Crookston (Pattern & Special Technique)
Leaha McLelland (Sparring)
Ellie Weir (Sparring)
Tickets have almost sold out for our annual awards night on 26th November!
Have you purchased yours yet? If not best be quick, we MUST close sales on Wednesday 16th November.
**Please note when choosing the tickets your require, you must click each ticket, not the overall number of tickets. I.e. For 3 Adult tickets, select and check the following boxes;
“Adult 1”
“Adult 2”
“Adult 3”
Not just “Adult 3” 🙂
We are looking for raffle donations for the evening also, if you have something you’d like to donate or maybe know a business who’d like to donate a voucher or prize, please hand these to your instructor during classes.
A small team of competitors travelled to Milan, to take part in the Italian Open Championships on 12th November.
Coaches: John McIlvaney & John Munro
Competitors: Lewis McIlvaney, Desi Athanasiadou, Anton McMenemy, Hayden McAvoy, Jay Jervis, Megan Brown, Iain O’Hare & Jason Munro.
The team travelled out on Friday, landing around 6pm, and made their way straight to the registration and weigh-in, as most had been cutting weight that week to prepare, they were rather hungry, and looked to complete as soon as possible in order to re-hydrate and re-fuel before the next days events.
The tournament venue was split into two halls, one for the children (under 13’s) and the other for the junior and adult divisions.
The morning saw everyone compete in their respective Pattern divisions, and the afternoon the Sparring. As the last international event of the year and penultimate tournament on the 2016 calendar, our competitors were more determined than ever to bring back the results, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.
Desi Athanasiadou – Bronze Pattern
Anton McMenemy – Bronze Pattern
Hayden McAvoy – Bronze Sparring
Jay Jervis – Bronze Sparring
Megan Brown – Silver Sparring
Iain O’Hare – Silver Pattern, Gold Sparring
Congratulations to all taking part, we now look forward to the last tournament of the year in Newcastle, next weekend.
Congratulations to the following students who successfully promoted to the next level on Sunday 6th November.
Cool Ninja (Green) – Zac Brown
Super Ninja (Blue) – Zuzanna Dabrowska
Ace Ninja (Red) – Nickolas Brown
Quick Kicker (Yellow) – Tegan Cairns
Cool Kicker (Green) – Daniel Hedges Jnr, Owen Gallacher, Roshan Haq & Isa Haq
Super Kicker (Blue) – Kera McLeish
Top Kicker (Purple) – Jayden Drysdale, Adam Robertson, Morris Brown & Ryan Connor
Premier Kicker (Red) – Jack Pllu
9th Kup (Yellow Tag) – Blair Steele, Caitlin Hughes, Stephen Hughes, Ryan Thomson & Kimberley Gill
8th Kup (Yellow Belt) – Ellie Weir, Pauline Pence, Cameron Phillips, James Watson & Sarah Parsons
7th Kup (Green Tag) – Miryan Galloway
6th Kup (Green Belt) – Nali Rahim, Lawa Rahim & Patrick Sherlock
3rd Kup (Red Tag) – Robert Parsons
2nd Kup (Red Belt) – Declan McAvoy & Jaimie Singleton
On Monday 10th October a team of 9 travelled to Budapest, Hungary for the 6th ITF World Cup.  This was to date the largest recorded competition in the ITF’s history.  The event which is open to competitors aged 12 and over, Blue belt (4th Cup) to Black Belt (6th Degree) had over 1800 competitors from 58 countries taking part in competition over 5 days.
For many of the students travelling this was their first experience on the international stage, and for all their first World Cup, and what a stage it was to start on.
After arriving in Budapest on Monday evening the team headed straight to their accommodation for the week, and settled in before heading out for a quick bite to eat, well those who weren’t trying to make weigh the next morning did. Â Tuesday morning was registration and weigh-in at the venue. Â Mr. McIlvaney and Mr. Munro completed the registration process first thing, which the team to the opportunity to train (in the living room area of the apartments no less – very novel approach). Â After training they gathered and headed to the official weigh-in, where everyone made weight first time, with kilo’s to spare. Â Great effort all round after months for training and nutritional management. Â Promptly after weight check they headed off to re-fuel and prepare for the 5 days competition ahead.
Wednesday was reserved for individual pattern events, with all our competitors taking to the rings throughout the day. Â The youngest member of the team at just 13 years old Jaimie was first to compete against Sweden, followed swiftly by Ethan vs Norway , Anton vs Italy and Jay vs Norway. Â All 4 competitors performed well, with very narrow margins in the results, but did not process past the first round. Â Hayden was the last of the juniors up for pattern, beating Ireland in the first round, and unfortunately going out to Norway in the next.
Our only senior competitor Jason, had a pattern division of 63 persons, and was drawn first round against Argentina. Â He got off to a flying start winning convincingly, followed by strong wins in the next rounds against Spain, Canada and then Poland, before losing out to a Spanish opponent in the Semi-Finals. Â Well deserved Bronze medal for him.
Wednesday was also Hayden’s 15th Birthday, after the competition had finished there was time for celebration and cake to share.
Over the next three days the sparring events and special technique took place
In Sparring Jaimie drew Belarus, winning convincingly before losing out to Poland in the second round. Â Jason progressed past Argentina in the first round, before losing out to Ireland. Â Jay also drew an Argentinian opponent in the first round, winning 4-0 to meet Russia in the next. Â The Russian opponent then progressed to the next round by the narrowest of margins.
Ethan fought well against a strong experienced Polish opponent, holding his own.  Hayden had an Argentinian opponent in the first round, sparring well throughout, he unfortunately lost out and the Argentinian then went on to win the division. Anton also sparred well against Uzbekistan in the first, but sadly did not progress further. All competitors showed great skill and determination in their respective bouts, and we look forward to developing and progressing for future sparring events.
Finally in Special Technique Jaimie and Ethan both scored points but not enough to progress to the medal rounds. Anton made it into the Bronze medal playoffs but did not score enough points to be placed. Hayden was unlucky with both the special technique events scoring no points.
The team all learned from the experience and will put into practice in their training going forward. Â There’s no rest however with another two competitions looming before the Christmas break. Â A number of them are heading off to the Italian Open in a few weeks, and the last competition of the year in Newcastle towards the end of November.
TEAMGMAC
Coaches: John McIlvaney, John Munro & Lorna Singleton
Competitors: Jason Munro, Ethan McKenna, Jay Jervis, Hayden McAvoy, Anton McMenemy and Jamie Singleton
A gallery of pictures from the trip can be found on our Facebook page; Â Link to Gallery Here
