A DALE teenager has been crowned a Scottish taekwondo champion after only two years in the sport.
Chloe Simpson, from Cockfield, fought her way to the under-14 title during the 2022 Open Scottish Championship at the end of last month.
It was only her second tournament having previously won two bronze medals during fights at Liverpool in April.
The red belt fighter currently trains with former International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) world champion fighter Christopher Black at NEST Taekwondo, in Darlington.
She said: “I started because I wanted to bring up my confidence and it has helped me a lot.”
She took up the sport shortly before the pandemic started.
The 13-year-old said: “I had a month in class and then we went to online classes.”
Currently, she trains twice a week at the Dolphin Centre, in Darlington, and complements that with practice at home, and shortly after earning a gold medal at Hamilton, in Glasgow, was promoted to red belt.
Her proud dad Nicky said: “He (Christopher Black) is hoping for a black tag before the end of the year and black belt next year.
“He also says he wants her to go for England trials,” he added.
But the youngster is not resting on her laurels and says fighting will be harder in the coming year as she moves from the under 14 category to the 14-17 years section where she will be going up against much older competitors.
