Seven students from Broadclyst and Honiton’s TAGB Star Tae Kwon Do Group successfully participated in the most recent national Black Belt Grading in Bristol.

The achievement included the award of Black Belt status to the club’s youngest ever entrant, Joseph Tandy who is just 8 years old.

Founder and Lead Instructor of Star Tae Kwon Do, Miss Chloe Lock, enthused: “I’m so very proud of all my Black Belt students – they have demonstrated the tenets of Tae Kwon Do in abundance. They all worked so hard to get to this standard and, even though three of those achieving Black Belt status were children, they were still expected to achieve the same high standards as the adults they graded with.”

With two 4th Degree and five 1st Degree Black Belt passes as well, the club’s celebrations of the student’s achievements culminated with a presentation of their certificates from Master Dew 8th Dan, TAGB vice chairman and South West Co-ordinator to the successful students; Mr Kevin Harris (4th degree Black Belt), Mr Adrian Holman (4th degree Black Belt), Megan Grendon, Daniel Nellist, Joshua Cade, Nathan Boland and Joseph Tandy.

“The age range of those taking their Black Belt, with the oldest being 45 and the youngest 8 demonstrates how versatile Tae Kwon Do is and also how flexible and adaptable it can be,” commented Miss Lock.

“Meg and Nathan, for example, started training when they were very young, took a break and then came back to it with renewed enthusiasm. Others, like Joseph who started training when he was four, Josh when he was eight and Dan when he was 13 worked right through to achieve Black Belt status in less than five years. All of them persevered to successfully reach their ultimate goal of Black Belt status.”

In addition to their own training, these new Black Belt students will go on to help train other coloured belt students as they themselves have been helped.

“We’re particularly grateful to Mr Harris and Mr Holman, who despite having a grading of their own to become 4th Degree Black Belts, continued to help train our younger Black Tags (Black Belt contenders), along with Tracy and Helen Kirby and Honiton’s Martin McClaughlin, who holds the World Champion title for Black Belt Men’s Destruction.

“Everybody invested a lot of time and effort into training our new Black Belts and I think their dedication definitely paid off.”

Renowned for its first-class instruction techniques and successive bi-annual Black Belt achievements, Star Tae Kwon Do has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

What’s more, with the clubs first ever Tiger’s student, Will Narramore, among the original students who still attend regular training sessions, the expansion of this Tae Kwon Do school to include classes in Honiton, Broadclyst and now Cranbrook demonstrates that the club is going from strength to strength.

For information on classes, email startaekwondo@hotmail.co.uk or call 01404 850033.