HEREFORD Tae Kwon Do instructor Dave Sheppard led by example clinching his ninth world title and his students followed suit clinching several golds and a host of other medals at the World Championships.

Some 2,500 competitors from all continents converged on The Arena Birmingham recently for the two-day event with the junior grades and children on the Saturday and the more experienced black belt fighters and the international team event on the Sunday.

Hereford Tae Kwon Do club had 15 students competing, many entering for the first time and they did not disappoint.

The day started with patterns and the standard was set when Maria Poranski picked up a bronze medal, followed shortly after by a silver from Oskar Domanski in the men's patterns.

Poranski then went on to sparring, narrowly losing out to a fellow Hereford student Kelly Marshall in the final to who took the gold medal and became Hereford's first World Champion student.

Both then teamed up with another competitor to win silver in tag teams.

Domanski then continued the day winning a bronze in the patterns and finishing off with a silver in hand power and gold in the leg power event.

Adam Janczewski carried on the success with gold medals in both the hand and leg power test division for heavyweights. This was followed up by two silvers for his son Patryk in sparring and tag teams.

Other family successes included Jo Canton Smith picking up a bronze in sparring and silver in tag teams. This was followed by a silver for husband Mark Smith in the leg power test and son Monty who won bronze in the sparring and tag teams.

The second day of the event was for the more experienced black belts individual and international events.

This day started well with Dave Sheppard, club instructor winning the patterns division, winning his first in 1991 and becoming the first person to win titles in all four disciplines, sparring, patterns, leg destruction and hand destruction.

The weekend was topped off with Ben Hargreaves who was selected for the Welsh team and came away with a Bronze medal after some very hard close fights.

If anyone is interested in taking up Tae Kwon Do please contact Master David Sheppard 7th Dan on 07966429392