Taekwondo Triumphs
Eleanor Warrington (left) and Ben Futcher (middle) securing bronze at the UKTA UK Open 2023.
We interviewed Eleanor Warrington (2021 DPhil Engineering Science) and Ben Futcher (2021 DPhil Oncology) who have recently secured bronze at the UKTA UK Open 2023 and gold and silver at the Autumn BUCS Championship 2023 in Taekwondo while active committee members of the Oxford University TaeKwon-Do School (OUTKD).
Tell us more about your experience of Taekwondo at Oxford – what got you involved with it?
Eleanor: I started Taekwondo as a child through a local club, where I achieved my 1st Dan black belt after five years; however, I then decided to quit. Upon starting my undergraduate degree, I came back to the sport and I’m now doing a DPhil at Oxford and thoroughly enjoying my time with the club. I have thrown myself into competing and Taekwondo has become a big part of my life again, having obtained my 2nd Dan black belt in June last year!
Ben: I have been training in Taekwondo for 18 years, beginning in 2005 when I was 8 years old because I was super keen to do martial arts. So when I arrived in Oxford, I immediately signed up as a member of OUTKD and have taken an active role in running the club, encouraging its members to participate in competitive and training opportunities unique to the UK student Taekwondo community. I am currently a 3rd Dan black belt and have been since 2018, but I am hoping to use the opportunities provided by OUTKD to advance even further in Taekwondo.
Eleanor Warrington Secretary of OUTKD, Accessibility & Disability Officer for Keble MCR, Communications Officer for the Disabilities Campaign, and Secretary of the Oxford Optics and Photonics Society.
You had recent success at the UKTA UK Open and British Universities & Colleges Sport Autumn Championships – what did this involve?
The UK Taekwon-Do Association (UKTA) UK Open is the largest annual competition organised by the UKTA, which attracts exceptionally high-level national and international Taekwondo competitors. Ben competed in the patterns category, which involves correctly performing technically challenging movements in competition against fellow athletes. Eleanor competed in the sparring category, which involves scoring points against your opponent by striking the head or body with kicks and punches. In both categories, the best-performing athletes progress through the rounds towards a final gold medal match, with both of us making it to our respective semi-finals where we secured bronze medals.
The Autumn BUCS Championships is the first of three Taekwondo BUCS competitions held each academic year and we were part of a team of nine OUTKD athletes competing across a variety of competitive events. We competed in a team patterns display with a third teammate, an event that demands we perform synchronised movements in addition to executing them correctly, similar to that of synchronised swimming displays. We each received a silver medal for our performance. Ben also participated in pairs and individual patterns categories, winning a gold medal for the pairs event, and ranking 5th out of 23 total competitors for the individual event.
Ben Futcher is president of OUTKD, recent Treasurer of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association, a member of the Oncology Student Network and a student representative on the Department of Oncology’s Public Engagement Committee.
What are your future goals when it comes to Taekwondo?
Eleanor: I would love to continue competing and gaining experience, particularly in BUCS competitions, and grade for my 3rd Dan black belt in 2024. On a personal level, I want to continue the representation of Para-Taekwondo.
Ben: I am hoping to grade and obtain my 4th Dan black belt in March 2024 and, before completing my DPhil, participate in as many as possible of the competitive and training opportunities in the UK that are only open to students. I am especially keen as the president of OUTKD to instil the club with a culture of pursuing these opportunities to hopefully make the club a major player in the UK student Taekwondo scene. I am also passionate about instructing and introducing as many people as possible to Taekwondo and encouraging their development in the sport, so may one day consider starting my own club.
What would you say to beginners interested in joining OU Taekwondo?
OUTKD is an incredibly beginner-friendly club, we welcome new members all year round and offer training sessions throughout the majority of the vacation periods too. We welcome those with zero martial arts experience, those who haven’t trained since they were a kid and, of course, those who have been training for many years.
Our sessions are also hugely varied, so no one class is the same and we work with you at the level you are comfortable with, ensuring your skills develop at your own pace. We also train you to a very high standard, having beaten Cambridge in the last 14 annual Varsity matches held, so you know you are being taught by highly knowledgeable instructors.
Taekwondo is also an incredibly therapeutic sport: there is nothing better than being able to whack some pads after a tough day. We really encourage you to give it a go, especially if you have never done a martial art before. We are also a very friendly bunch of people, so why not make some new friends and kick them in the face!
