South Queensferry TKD students strike gold at Euros

Students from a Tae Kwon-Do school in South Queensferry struck gold when they competed at the recent European Championships in Bulgaria.
Medal winners  Emma Fraser, Gilles Brown, Michael McRoberts and Catriona McRoberts.Medal winners  Emma Fraser, Gilles Brown, Michael McRoberts and Catriona McRoberts.
Medal winners Emma Fraser, Gilles Brown, Michael McRoberts and Catriona McRoberts.

The South Queensferry School of Tae Kwon-Do had students taking part in the competition in Sofia as part of a 32-strong Scotland squad.

And they returned with a host of medals with three of them becoming European Champions.

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It was a fantastic performance by the South Queensferry contingent who beat European and World champions along the way.

Gilles Brown (24) picked up gold in the senior 85kg Individual Sparring category, making him now a two-time European champion.

He beat opponents from Poland, Ireland, England and Germany.

Michael McRoberts (19) also struck gold in the Individual Patterns discipline and captured bronze medals in both the senior 63kg Individual Sparring competition and the Bronze Team Patterns.

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In the Individual Patterns, in a huge division, he beat Finland, Slovakia, Norway, Russia and Poland while in the Individual Sparring he had victories over Georgia, Spain and Slovenia before only losing to the current European and world champion from Ireland in the semi-final.

And to round off a terrific competition for him, he was also named joint best overall male competitor with a Russian.

Catriona McRoberts (17) also enjoyed a double medal success at junior level, taking gold in the female Junior Team Patterns by winning rounds against England, Norway and Russia and bronze in the Individual Patterns, where she defeated opponents from Finland, Hungary and Norway before losing to the eventual winner, also from Finland.

And completing a magnificent seven-medal haul was Emma Fraser (16) who won bronze in the Junior Power Breaking category.

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All the successful competitors are coached by Julia Cross, who herself holds 15 European and six world titles.

Julia, a 6th degree black belt, has trained in the art of Taekwon-Do for the last 30 years and founded the South Queensferry School of Taekwon-Do - which is based in Viewforthbank Industrial Estate - in 1988.

The standard of the championships in Sofia was extremely high with 600 competitors from 28 countries converging on the Bulgarian capital.

For more information on the school, which runs classes for four-year-olds upwards, visit http://www.southqueensferrytkd.info or their Facebook page.

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