We come to the end of another fantastic year and that time has come again when we look back on the year and reward students for their efforts and hard work. Award certificates and prizes are given to top performers in each area. This year the following Awards were up for contest: Top Attendance, Fighter of The year Senior, Junior and Child, Student of The Year and Supporters of The Year

Winners of the Awards are listed below.

Tuesday Class:
Highest Attendance for 2009 Danyal, Ifrah, Maqim, Ismail, Ibrahim, Ilyas	Special Attendance Award Ehsan Ali	Senior Figher of the Year John Smallbone Junior Fighter of the Year – Afia Ahmed	Student of the Year John Smallbone	Supporter of the Year Garry Smallbone

Saturday Children's Class:
Highest Attendance for the Year 2009 Mehdi, Mujahid, Humza, Ahnaf & Harry	Supporter of the Year Shamim and Farid

It was a 5pm start but Team Hadri’s elite fighters were prepared for some action. With 6 weeks of intense squad training players were selected by Master Esrar to compete at this competition. The team had a mix of experienced and first time competitors but there were high hopes as the team had trained hard.

They day was full of excitement with the children starting the day with win after win. Mujahid fought his way through to the finals and Nadim in to the semis, both were guaranteed medals but it was the gold we wanted. Mujahid had a close match in the finals winning Gold and Nadim managed to win silver.  

The team fought fantastically with Afia and Fadwa continuing their GOLD rush by winning all their matches in convincing style. Usman and Haroon put in a fantastic display and secured a Gold and Silver.

It the clubs highest ever medal tally and a proud moment for Master Esrar.

A big thanks to East End Life for covering the Event and a special Thank You to Councillor Abjol Miah for coming down to Bishop Challoner School to present medals to the team.

Team Results were: 5 x GOLD, 1 x Silver, 4 x Bronze (10 medals with 14 players)

Master Esrar was presented a Citation by The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) in recognition of his dedicated service and outstanding contribution to the development of Taekwondo by Master Keith Evans.

Master Esrar is one of the lucky few who has ever received a Citation from the WTF and described the moment as being the highlight of his Taekwondo carer so far.

A fantastic result and absolutely well deserved Gold. John put in many hours and weeks of hard work to prepare for the completion and it showed on the day. Lighting fast response which allowed him to dispatch hisopponent in 15 seconds.

Master Esrar was extremely proud of John’s performance, Master Esrar Said “he took control of the match from the beginning and didn’t look back. This is just the beginning for John he has a fantastic future”.

Thank you once again to East End Life for a great article.

All Hadri Taekwondo clubs got together for some nail biting action on a sunny April morning.

Up first were the children some as young as 5 competing in their first ever competition. Some fought with so much confidence it felt like they owned the ring! It was great to see some fearless young children fighting it out to be the best. These guys are defiantly future champions.

Next up were the junior players, some were experience fighters and you could see the difference in class. Master Esrar vision of creating champions is slowly coming true. A few years ago some of these students feared getting on to the mats and today they fought with courage and determination, it was a pleasure to watch.

Last up were the seniors and they put on a fantastic performance keeping the crowed at the edge of their chairs. Female players didn’t hold back either they were in a league of their own. It was a pleasure to see some bright young female talent emerging and Master Esrar has high hopes for future female instructors.

It was a fantastic day and a big thank you to all the supporters and helpers for making it a superb event.

Team Results:
1st place – 89 Points, Hadri Tkd Bishop Challoner School
2 nd Place – 33 Points, Hadri Tkd Asian Centre

Hadri Taekwondo has been working closely with various NHS Departments to help tackle the ever increasing rate of obesity. Tower Hamlets has the highest rate of obesity of all London Boroughs so in Partnership with Hadri Taekwondo Master Esrar and Sir Shujahat was invited to do a Self Defence session for a Secondary Schools Linked to East London Islamic Education Centre.

Te session was tailored towards Secodary school students with an energetic warm up followed by Taekwondo Kicking drills and ending in self defence techniques. Martial arts are a fantastic way to get fit, lose weight and improve well being. Hadri Taekwondo now teaches children as young as 4 years old so good habits can be learnt early to help lead a healthy life.

Master Esrar, Sir Shujahat and Sana were invited to hold session for Dame Kelly Holmes Girls Active! Project. Kelly Holmes is personally involved in The Girls Active project and the aim is to encourage more females to participate in sports.

Hadri Taekwondo was the only Martial Arts club invited to hold six short 45 min sessions throughout the day and promote WTF Taekwondo. For many this was the first time they had experienced Taekwondo and the response was overwhelming. Kelly Holmes also joined in for one our 45min session to experience Taekwondo for herself, I think we have sold her on Taekwondo :-)

It was a brilliant day and a real pleasure for Hadri Taekwondo to be there to give back to the community.

They say true martial artists and warriors never give up untill their last breath and it was put to the test for Hadri Taekwondo. After being at Attlee Youth and Community Centre (AYCC) for many years AYCC decided that the centre would no longer be opening on Saturdays. This left the club with no venue for training. Master Esrar's heart nearly stopped at hearing the devastating news.

Bishop Challoner School (BCS) came to the rescue. After a hopeful meeting with Steve Nugent and his team at the Learning Village Master Esrar had secured a venue. With the support of all the students, parents and the clubs Black Belts a new wave of passion and excitement was felt throughout the club.

Master Esrar went to working developing The Little Dragons Program for children between the ages of 4-9. The aim was to begin the development of future champions as early as possible. The Junior/Adults class was given a new direction and the club was in full throttle to provide the borough with fantastic martial artists and future instructors.

Also a big thanks to East End Life for publishing a fantastic article on the clubs success.

Master Esrar had been longing to go to Korea for a long time as it had been quite a numbers of years since his last visit and the International Instructors course was a fantastic opportunity.

Master Esrar recalls his trip:
Evening though I had been to Korea visiting and seeing the Kukkiwon was so surreal and spiritual, it felt like home away from home.

The first day started off with a bang meeting Grand Master Vohra at the Kukkiwon who is on of the highest ranking Masters in the UK was great. Then to top it off meeting the Vice President of the WTF was amazing.

I thought it would be difficult to top yesterday but at the World Chung Do Kwan Head Quarters we met President of Kukkiwon Dr. Uhm, Woon Kyu which was unbelievable and then Grand Master Park, Hae Man (Head of Chung Do Kwan). Meeting Grand Master Park was brilliant as Hadri Taekwondo Lineage of Taekwondo Masters is Chung Do Kwan.

On the little spare time we had after of before training at the Kukkiwon we managed to visit KyungBop Palace and also making a compulsory visit to the Kukkiwon museum, you cant go to the Kukkiwon and not go into the museum!

Once the Instructors course started it was just down to business nothing but hard work and lots of practise. We met and trained with the 3 times Korean World Poomsae Champions and did a brilliant session with him. We were lucky enough to have an extremely insightful session with a Taekwondo Professor from KyungWon University who leads the Sparring team.

We trained and studied real hard and also made some real good friends. The Isle of Man Taekwondo Association, Richard, Rod and the guys were such fun to be with around. I have many happy memories and lots of pictures to prove the good times.

Master Na (works at the Kukkiwon) and his friends were extremely hospitable and made the evening dinners something I really looked forward to. Korean hospitality was amazing and making friends was so easy.

After finishing the Instructors Course (sitting the practical and written test was so nerve racking) we had a few days to relax and do some site seeing. Visiting Master Na’s Children’s class was great it just reminded me of our Little Dragons Class, but I have a long way to go till they are that good :-)

We also managed to fit in some time to watch a Demo by the Kukkiwon Display Team which was out of this world. They performed it in the rain and still made it look easy, damn they are good.

I managed to get out the Hadri Taekwondo club T-shirt and go to the Kukkiwon and site seeing in Korea, that t-shirt is special now.

All in all it was an amazing experience and the people I got to meet all i can say is I feel so lucky and i am just itching to go back again soon.

Hard work had been done and it was once again time to put it all to the test. Team Hadri were 9 fighters strong with just of half the fighters competing for the first time.  Experience was the most important medals were not really the objective.  

The day started with Humzah who just lost out on 1 point but for a first match a great result. Next up was Adil who in his usual confident performance despite competing for the first time won his match 3-0. It just got better as the day went on. Tayyib also a first time competitor won his first and second match in fantastic style taking him through to the finals.

The rest of the team were not holding back with 4 players in the finals up for a possible gold. Tyyib and Adil fought extremely close matches in their categories and won GOLD. Fadwa dominated her opponent (A Blue Belt) winning 4-8 and John narrowly lost out on points earning himself a well deserved Silver.

Team Results: 3 x GOLD, 1 x Silver, 3 x Bronze (7 medals with 9 players)

Saturday 12th April 2009 was going to be a momentous day, it was the first ever competition the club had organised and there was plenty of excitement I the air. Many of the students were first time fighters and were going to be getting their first taste of competition nerves.

The day started with the children up first fighting their way through to the finals. Some spectacular matches took place with every child giving it everything to win that prestigious Gold. It seemed like they were season professional rather then first time fighters. One child asked “ If I loose can I go back in and fight again” when asked did he not feel scared or nervous, he replied “ no, I just want to fight till I win”, it shows how good martial arts training can build immense confidence and a positive can do attitude.

The afternoon came and the juniors and adults took to the mats. They didn’t disappoint. The desire to win was even stronger and the 6 week preparation for the competition was about to be put to the test. A fantastic match between Adil and Tayyib took place. Each fighter was cautious but Adil managed to pull off some amazing shots to score points which won him Gold in his category.

Without a doubt it was a fantastic day and helped many students realised their true abilities. The purpose was to help students gain valuable competition experience and for Hadri Taekwondo to find some special talent and future stars which we did.

A big thank you for all the hard work put in by all the helpers and students at Hadri Taekwondo to make the day run smoothly.

 
East End Life were also at the event to cover the opening read the article below

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