After recent success at the National Championships and great performances at post competition training sessions, Melissa was selected to represent Great Britain at the European junior Championships, in Trelleborg, Sweden. Running up to the competition Melissa had been training very hard and I personally felt we had worked on what needed to be done for Melissa to make a name for herself at this competition. Earlier in the year Melissa took part in the Trelleborg Open in Sweden which was at the same venue the European Championships were to be held themselves. The Adidas Electronic body protectors were used at this competition. With Melissa winning a silver medal and having used the EBP’s several times prior to this event, without doubt this gave her a lot of confidence for the junior European Championships ahead. Having worked hard to make her weight, Melissa was successfully entered into -44kg. Melissa’s first match was against the national team of Romania. This proved to be a tough fight for Melissa. With not many body shots being scored on the EBP’s, Melissa felt she needed to use her headshots. Within just one single exchange of kicks Melissa caught the girl with a cracking back leg turning kick to the face and went on to win the match 3-1; taking her into the quarter-finals. The next opponent Melissa was to face was from the National team of Serbia. Melissa knew that if she was to beat this girl she would be taking home a medal. This fired her up and she went into the ring with so much determination. She did not let us down. Melissa totally outclassed the girl from start to finish. She scored two great headshots and used a push side kicks to force the girl out the ring. She won her quarter-final fight 7-0!!!! This took Melissa into the semi-finals. Although Melissa knew she had won a bronze she wanted to go all the way. Her next opponent was from Spain. When it comes to the sport of Taekwondo, Spain is a real tough nation to beat. It was the hardest fight of the day for Melissa; both girls scoring some impressive body shots but unfortunately Spain managed to pull away and won the fight. Although Melissa was disappointed she lost, she was happy she managed to kick the girl in the head a few seconds before the end of the fight. This was a great day for Melissa and Wessex TKD. We are extremely proud of her as a club; winning a well deserved bronze medal, and what made it an even bigger achievement, was Melissa was the only athlete to medal from Great Britain!!! Congratulations Melissa!! |