2024 Club Championships - Results

The News!

NEWMARKET wins the 2024 Championship Trophy with seven gold — one gold ahead  of long-time rival Kenmore! No tiebreaker required this year. Revenge is sweet.  Congrats to Master Shirly and the Newmarket team!

THE GAP narrowly wins the 2024 Players Trophy with 66.67%! Needing only one more medal, Toowoomba was a close second.  Congrats to Instructor Nicole, Master Ben and the team!

Hannah Yang 2024 Club Champion!

Sam Yang highest kick 245 cm!

Master Shirly Sieh highest kick for the female division at 230 cm!

6 Teams

Poomsae
Power Breaking
High Kick
+19 black belt officials!

PHOTO ALBUM
 & VIDEO
INCLUDED BELOW

Report Summary

22nd CHAMPIONSHIP!

This is the 22nd Club Championship event! We thank our host and sponsor — Grandmaster Bradley — thank you for making this event possible!

For a complete history on past winners you can click here: Past Events

THE TEAMS

The Sun Bae KMA Taekwondo Championships were held at Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia, Saturday 13 October 2024. The teams are:

• Team Kenmore: Master Shirly (defending 2023 champions) (56 players).
• Team Newmarket: Master Shirly (runner up 2022) (43 players).
• Team The Gap: Instructor Nicole & Master Ben (27 players).
• Team Toowoomba: Instructor John (10 players).
• Team Middle Park: Instructor Brendan (25 players).
• Team Mt Gravatt: Master Ben (14 players).

Our players enjoyed perfect weather conditions, though the humidity of the preceding stormy weather did impact the condition of the tiles (usually more brittle).  

The poomsae division (patterns) was conducted on three courts  — 172 players — all Sun Bae students, as this is an invitation only event for Sun Bae members.

Six teams competed in knockout style, in 23 divisions, the eventual winner requiring a broad range of player performance.

The largest division this year was Red III - Intermediate (under 15) with 19 players.  

PATTERNS — EXPLAINED

CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY

Matchplay patterns — knockout until a victor is declared.  The largest division required five matches to win, another two matches afterwards to declare the Club Champion — a true test of fitness and mental strength. Luck of the draw is no stranger to the event, sometimes with the possibility of facing the eventual club champion in the first round. How is your karma?!

The Championship trophy only includes the contest for patterns. The winning team is declared by the highest number of gold medals. Silver and bronze are still utilised, but only in the event of a tie (refer to 2022 result).

Any tie is decided upon the lowest number of DQ players. A further tie is decided upon the lowest number in a team. 

It is worth understanding the tie procedures. This year it seemed a tie of historical, even epic, proportions was looming upon Middle Park and The Gap. They were contesting closely for the bronze. Read the full story below in Team Patterns - Championship Trophy)!

PLAYERS TROPHY

The Players Trophy is decided upon the highest percentage (per team capita) of medals won: gold, sliver, bronze. It includes all events: patterns, high kick, tile break! 

Example: 10 medals from 20 in a team = 50%.

The Players Trophy is designed to afford smaller teams a stronger chance to compete. This winner was The Gap — fielding 27 players —  narrowly snatching the Trophy from Toowoomba by one medal.

Every player entered is important.

CLUB CHAMPION — INDIVIDUAL

One champion per rank: black, red III, red, blue, yellow and white.

Each final is represented by the best in junior, intermediate, adult and masters.

Note: Club Instructors are not allowed to compete in the patterns or be crowned as "Club Champion" (for obvious reasons). 

FULL REPORT BELOW

POWER BREAKING — ROOF TILES — EXPLAINED

Power breaking is tested on terracotta roof tiles — only for black belt students. Sun Bae uses Terracotta tiles because they remain consistent in strength over time, unlike cement tiles which are very easy to break when they are new (and unbreakable when they are old).

It is important NOT to try breaking without your instructor. SEVERE (even life-threatening) injuries can occur. The tiles,  even once broken, can be quite sharp and can cut the wrists or fingers. It is dangerous and only professionals should attempt.

Every year our players are faced with a decision upon how many they should stack. Too many and you can lose power, as it sits too high. Not enough and you might be left wondering! 

The player is awarded a bonus tile on their score if they completely break a stack — thus assuming they would have broken one more. Strategy is key!

It is always an exciting event, with spectators treated to a great display of traditional martial arts. Only six players this year, but it did not disappoint with Master Ben destroying a complete stack of 8 to tally 9!

On the note of tradition, roof tiles were always part of the original black belt testing in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. Sun Bae has continued this tradition late into the 90's whereupon it became very hard to actually find the right roof tiles. Sun Bae now keeps its reserve of tiles just for the Championship.

FULL REPORT BELOW

HIGH KICK — JUMPING FRONT KICK— EXPLAINED

The club record is 284 cm.

Players compete in seven divisions: split into male, female and midgets (both girls & boys).

The high kicking is always a crowd pleaser, with much barracking and encouragement, the room thundering to elevate each player! It is a must-see event, worth begging mum and dad to stay!

FULL REPORT BELOW

Team Patterns - Championship Trophy

Results & Medals

There were 172 pattern (poomsae) players this year. Most divisions were heavily fielded. Four judges per court. Ties decided by the Head Of Court. These close contests can often prove the difference, especially this year with only one medal separating the winner in both the Championship Trophy and the Players Trophy. 

FIRST & SECOND PLACE — TEAM NEWMARKET & TEAM KENMORE

A familiar rivalry!

First place was won by Team Newmarket. Second place went to Team Kenmore.

The defending champions, Team Kenmore, looked strong from the outset, almost a clean sweep in the Black Belt division with two gold to one. Master Shirly would have been rubbing her knifehands gleefully, except she is of course the centre instructor coach for both teams. I am sure most mum's and dad's with two children understand.

The Blue Belt division finished tied at one gold each, as was the red belt division, a true battle. It is close! But Team Kenmore, defending, still have the overall lead by one. Not that it was apparent, but a soft gold went begging in Red Masters division, empty and uncontested! If you are in this division and did not attend, remember, you have to be in it to win it! Oh what could have been!

Team Newmarket surged forth to level the score in the Red III Belt division, winning two gold to one — back on track! Notably, the largest division of 19 players — Red III Intermediate — was won by Matilda Fenton of Team Newmarket, a somewhat crucial performance. The scoreboard is now 5-5!! 

Yet, to Team Newmarket's utter dismay, the White Belt division finished in a complete and hopeless wash. In stark contrast, Team Kenmore had a gift win, Quentin Chiumino, unopposed in White Belt Intermediate division. Alarm bells were ringing, push-ups were being handed out — not looking good! It was a saving grace that Team Kenmore could only manage one gold in that division. The scoreboard is now 6-5 to Kenmore! A hard task now lays ahead for Newmarket — only four matches to go!  

The Yellow Belt division would be the decider, all eyes upon a lone court. But Team Kenmore's day sank as they completely washed the Yellow Belt division. Even one medal would have set a difficult task for long time rival Team Newmarket. And there it was, Team Newmarket winning the minimum two gold required for a clean victory.

A plain example that every match matters. Congratulations to Team Newmarket on their Championship win and to Team Kenmore on runner-up and to Master Shirly who unashamedly is the instructor for both teams.  

THIRD PLACE — TEAM THE GAP

Team The Gap are back on the podium after a dry stretch (last podium 2021) with three gold medals, four silver and three bronze — securing third place! They narrowly nudged out Team Middle Park who had two gold. It seemed Middle Park did not learn from last year, a repeat of the same, only one medal shy.  

For some background on what was a very close bronze result, it was almost an unbelievable tiebreaker, only narrowly avoided. It seems Team The Gap slipped ahead of Team Middle Park by the narrowest of margins — one gold medal. Had Team Middle Park produced just one more gold, the score would have been 4-4-3 to each team, a complete tie right down to the bronze. Okay, no problem, we would simply look to how many players were registered as a DQ for the day? Both teams had none. Alright, hen next we would see who had the smaller team? Both had 25 players each?!? Great! We thought this was going to be hard. Perhaps the only reasonable solution would be a face-off of each club instructor performing a random poomsae — seems only fair! In the end, bronze could have gone either way. It is well known at this event that the tide can turn ever so easily. For example, the White Belt Adult division had only two players: one from Team Middle Park and the other from Team The Gap! Curious? Team The Gap secured that gold, but a win from Team Middle Park would have propelled them into third place (no tiebreaker required!). Worthy of note, the winner of that match, Aston Simpson, went on to White Belt Club Champion — exempt from push-ups for at least a good two or three lessons!

NOTABLE MATCHES

GM Bradley reported that the quality of the Red III Masters Belt division (age 30+) was exceptional, including a very advanced display of kicking prowess. It was Midori Mihara from Team Toowoomba who emerged from the pack to eventually win through all the way to Club Champion. In her player career at Sun Bae, Midori has now swept Club Champion in Blue, Red and now Red III. Look out black belts as Midori is due to grade in November 2024! Footage of one of Midori's poomsae finals is above.

With our membership of families representing over 50% of the club, it was somewhat surprising there was only one family feud. It is a repeat of course of last year's battle between Hannah Yang and younger (but reputedly now taller) brother Sam Yang of Team Kenmore. They battled it out in the Black Belt Championship final with Hannah narrowly taking the crown. Notably GM Bradley stopped the match to review the video, the only time he did in fact — so it must have been close.

CLUB CHAMPIONS - INDIVIDUALS

We congratulate the champions in each division. It is usually a long road just to get to the finals and once there, it is two more matches. Club Champions must be prepared for the physical endurance as well as the mental strength required to get to the end. Serious training is recommended in preparation. The Champions are:  

• Black      Hannah Yang (Kenmore) [CLUB CHAMPION]
• Red III    Midori Mihara (Toowoomba)
• Red         Annick Stefanutti (Kenmore)
• Blue        Curtis Ding (Middle Park)
• Yellow    KaKa To (Mt Gravatt)
• White    Aston Simpson (The Gap)

RESULTS — LINKS

• CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD - TEAM PLACINGS (pdf)
• INDIVIDUAL MATCH RESULTS & MEDAL (pdf) 
  Matches run Round 1: top to bottom. Round 2: bottom to top. Round 3: top to bottom, etc.
• CLUB CHAMPIONS - MATCH RESULTS (pdf)
• TEAM MEMBERS
• EVENT HISTORY

Team Patterns - Players Trophy

Results & Medals

The Players Trophy includes all events: patterns, high kick and tile break. The winner this year, with a team of 27 players and a result of 66.67% was Team The Gap. Only one more medal was required by Team Toowoomba to take them down. 

Team The Gap fell well short (!) in High Kick, the event dominated by both Team Newmarket and Team Kenmore. However they most notably dominated the medal count in the Tile Break — and they needed it, a great comeback. It is likely the instructors for Team The Gap will be rectifying their jump training methods from now til next year's event.

Congratulations to Team The Gap, Instructor Nicole and Master Ben, their first Players win!   

 Results (links)

• LEADERBOARD - TEAM PLACINGS
• TEAM MEMBERS
• EVENT HISTORY

High Kicking

Results & Medals

The club record of 284 cm was not challenged at all this year, the highest kick at 245 cm by Sam Yang (who is in the shorter division actually). Nonetheless, anything close to the ceiling height at home is still a huge achievement and our crowd was suitably wooed with every valiant attempt!  

The Sun Bae highest kick record of 284 cm set by Michael Mills remains intact. Considering it to be somewhat close to the world record, it is likely to stay where it is. For students wishing to kick higher, please concentrate on your front splits ability and set a strong work-out program three months out from the event. Don't eat lunch just before you jump (and maybe think about cutting your hair).  

 Results (links)

• INDIVIDUAL RESULTS & MEDALS
• TEAM SCOREBOARD

SAM YANG ACTION 
245 cm

Power Breaking

Results & Medals

The tile breaking did not disappoint, in fact it never does, showing all the true skill and courage of a martial artist. The tiles used are all terracotta roofing tiles. Only black belts are permitted to enter — due to the inherent danger of breaking. 

Last year Instructor Nicole Vickery (Team The Gap) demolished seven tiles, an amazing feat for the ladies division. But she was slightly off target this year on her downward approach, missing her mark. She still recorded two tiles broken, matching all other players. Master Shirly Sieh (Team Newmarket) and Tabitha Cleaves (Team Toowoomba) only attempted two tiles, both successful! Per the rules, they were both awarded a score of three nudging ahead of Instructor Nicole (bronze medal). A tie is decided on the player's weight. Both players (apparently) weighed the same (or had perhaps colluded to not agree to be weighed?). The gold was eventually awarded to Tabitha (as she is the lower rank).

Master Ben Vickery (Team The Gap) took down a full stack of eight tiles to tally nine in total — securing the gold medal. Master Ben was under intense pressure, his student Andrew Shoebridge having just demolished an entire stack of seven tiles to tally eight. Under the rules, if Master Ben only broke eight, he would lose. 

All video footage is available for this exciting event.

Results (links)

• RESULTS & MEDALS — FEMALE
• RESULTS & MEDALS — MALE
• TEAM SCOREBOARD