Four medal haul for black belt Petrovich
Palmerston North’s Alex Petrovich was the best overall junior male black belt at the New Zealand International Taekwondo championships in Auckland at the weekend.
The Southern Cross Taekwondo Academy competitor, the best junior at the World Cup in Hungary last year, won three gold, and one bronze medal at the nationals.
Counties Manukau triumphed again as the top region, after consistent performances by many of the clubs from the area.
Counties Manukau won 162 medals, including 58 gold, ahead of Auckland North with 46 gold, Central were third followed by Wellington, Midlands, South Island and Australia.
The Paul M Club out of Papakura was the leading club on the medal table totalling 55 medals, including 18 gold.
However the club finishing second was Calibre Taekwon-do from the Hauraki Plains which is based out of the Waitakaruru Hall with Jon Sawden the head instructor.
The small club gained 11 gold, four silver and one bronze to finish just ahead of thirdplaced Southern Cross from Palmerston North.
Young Kayde Watson of Southern Cross was named the best overall male green belt and Kyle Williamson from Feilding Taekwondo Academy won best overall yellow belt. Both of them won two gold medals each.
About 400 competitors took part in the nationals, which many athletes were using as a warm up for the world championships in Dublin in October.
Ashley Porter from the Dragon Spirit Club in Papaptoetoe won the best overall junior black belt title after finishing with three gold and one silver.
John Raptis from the Berhampore club in Wellington wan the best senior overall black belt title and Row Hope (Legacy, Mt Albert, Auckland) was the women’s best overall black belt champion.
In one of the toughest competitions, world champion Wesley Filiki showed his strength in the men’s senior dan power title.
Filiki, from the Pil Sung Taekwon-do Club in Wellington, won the gold medal ahead of Kris Herbison (International Taekwon-do Riccarton, Christchurch), both of whom have been selected for this year’s world championships.
In third place was a former world champs medallist Brendan Doogan from Dragon Spirit, Papatoetoe.