A YOUNG martial arts fighter from Cockfield has won two bronze medals during her debut at the International Taekwondo Federation’s UK Championship.
Chloe Simpson narrowly missed out on a gold medal when she attended the UK championships in Birmingham last month.
The 14-year-old took up the sport shortly before the coronavirus pandemic and despite having to learn the sport through online classes for much of the past three years, she excelled at the Scottish Championships early this year, earning gold for her competitive fights.
She currently trains with former world champion fighter Chris Black of NEST Taekwondo, in Darlington.
Her bronze medals were earned in the patterns and sparring disciplines respectively. Of her sparring match she said: “At first I was nervous but then I thought to just give it my best. At first I was [knocked] out of the ring a few times but I used different techniques and she [my opponent] was just punching. I used three or four techniques – side kicks, spinning kicks and back kicks.”
Unfortunately, she missed out on winning gold for power, where she had been top of the leaderboard right up to the final stage.
She said: “I was one point off the highest score because I missed the target on the last punch.”
Her proud father Nicky said: “She has so much power in her fist, they couldn’t believe her power. Her coach Chris says he has never seen so much power in a girl her age. [She did well to get the medals she did because] there were nearly 300 at the competition, so there were a lot of people who got nothing.”
Now the youngster is training towards adding a black tag to her red belt ahead of competing in the Welsh Championships in March next year and hopes to earn her black belt before the end of 2023.
