On Saturday 12th April 2008 Col. Hathi made his way down to Newham Sports Centre (London) to compete in the national Tang Soo Do Championships.

Tang Soo Do is a Korean form of Karate and there are 2 clubs in the close proximity to the 18th Cambridge HQ. Col. Hathi attends Cambridge TSD at Mayfield Primary School on Thursday evenings.

At the championships Col. Hathi took part in two events: Hyungs (Forms) and Dae Ryun (Free Sparring). His category was 13-16 year old White and Orange belts.

Hyungs are a set pattern of moves in which each movement holds at least one block, kick or punch (similar to ‘Wax on… Wax off’). Col. Hathi did extremely well and came 1st in the Hyungs competition and 2nd in the Dae Ryun competition. For his successes he was awarded two trophies.

This was a massive success for him, seeing as it was his first competition. Col. Hathi says,

“This was a fantastic achievement for myself and I would have been happy to walk away with nothing. What I take away from this is that hard work, effort and determination does pay off in the end.”