10/10/2026
Bit of a long post and most definitely well overdue!
It's been a month and a bit since students travelled to Katherine to train along side Temple's Taekwondo and Kununurra Taekwondo with 9th Dan Grand Master Russell Wood and Olympian Caroline Marton.
Families, students and instructors travelled to Katherine to have the honour of training under the guidance of GM Wood and participating in a technical seminar. Students were able to learn how to fine tune and correct their techniques, then put everything into practice on the mat for a friendly competition. 🥋🥇🥈🥉
Grand Master Woods has many many years (decades 😲) of experience and knowledge throughout his taekwondo journey. From competing in competitions around Australia, overseas and even online, to teaching the new generation of champions to be. It's been a pleasure to be able to learn and improve techniques from a 9th Dan Black Belt and an inspiration to become the champion he believes us all to be. As he said to us, "mums food is always better" and I couldn't agree more. He has reminded us not only is being physically active so important but what we put into our bodies is just as important; so no more sneaky KFC and MacDonalds 😂
A very special acknowledgement to Master Darrel Temple from Katherine who has put this training seminar and competition together for all of us to experience. He has a wealth of knowledge and expertise (well over my age worth 😂). From being part of the massive Victoria Taekwondo (compared to the NT) to being part of multiple Australian/World Championships himself to coming to the the small town of Katherine NT and helping to build our Territory into something worth fighting for. 💪🥋
We look forward to partnering with Kununurra Taekwondo to bring competitions and training seminars across both states. Big thank you to Kiri in helping bring Kununurra Taekwondo across to the NT with her instructors and students.
Veronique was such a lovely lady and being black belt herself, has a passion for taekwondo and improving not only her students skills but improving her own. I hope her note taking has come in handy when going back home!
Massive congratulations to all the Outback Taekwondo students on their Gold🥇, Silver🥈 and Bronze🥉medals. Was a huge push for them, and a learning curve for losing with grace against big competitive students.
A couple highlights of the competition:
Big well done to Ethan for his impressive 1.95m Jumping front kick; a huge 45cm taller than his own height and almost the height of a doorway!
Sandra's awesome 1.5m jumping front kick (about 25cm more than her height)
Was a very close call between Lilou and Sandra in their poomse, but GM Wood agreed Sandra to receive Gold as she knew the pattern just that little bit better, but Sandra better watch out, as Lilou will be coming for that gold!
Owen's poomse was very impressive for his age; completing the whole pattern twice with Caroline complimenting him how well he did.
Sparring is always a huge push for the students as everyone trains with a slightly different style and the outcome can go either way. The students all received medals for their efforts, and have found a new drive to improve in those techniques.
And of course naturally Cassie won gold for her poomse Sipjin (only because there was no one else in her division 😂). But the young black belts from Kununurra won't be far off from competing against her as they competed over the weekend winning gold and silver in their poomses.
*Disclaimer* some photos will be blurry due to assist in maintaining privacy for some students competing and training over the weekend 😊
