Belgian Open 2010

Scorpion Taekwondo took a team of four to this year's Belgian Open held in Herentals, Belgium.

The event saw 712 competitors from all over the World taking part over the two day tournament, however, on this occasion, the competition was not on electronic scoring and was down to the judges.

Day one.

Three Scorpions were in action on the first day of the event with Scott Sutherill competing in his 2nd International of the year in the very competitive senior male -63kgs division. Scott faced Michal Fink of Poland and lost a very close match 6-9.

Hannah Mayes was next up in her 1st ever international tournament in the junior girls +68kgs group. Hannah unfortunately lost to Kathinka Aune of Norway, however, she gained valuble experience from the event.

Caroline Fisher was the last to compete in the senior female -53kgs divsion. Caroline faced Melanie Hartung of Germany in her 1st match (Hartung was ranked number 1 in Europe in 2009 in the ETU ranking lists and also defeated Caroline 0-8 at the World Championships last year), however, this time was a different story with Caroline beating Hartung 5-3 this time round. Caroline then faced Bekkali Lamyaa of the Moroccan National Team in the quarter final (The Moroccan being ranked number 1 in the World at the moment in the WTF World ranking lists) Caroline was cruising 7-2 going into the last round of the match however Caz injured her knee during the match and had to close down for the last round but still won the match 7-4. Massive disappointment came after the match when the GB National Team physio examined Caz and told her she had suspected medial ligament damage and therefore Pete had to withdraw Caz from the semi-final. Caz still winning Bronze but not the final result she was hoping for.

Day 2.

The only Scorpion player on day two was Stella Whitehead in the senior female +73kgs division. Stella who has been in amazing form winning two major international medals at the previous A-class events. Stella faced Stanja Stojakov of Germany 1st match where she defeated the German with ease winning 10-3. Stella then faced current European Champion from Sweden, Karolina Kedzierska. Stella had beaten the Champion at the German Open on the electronic protectors however Stella was very unlucky on the non-electronic pads with many of her shots not scoring and lost 5-9 in the semi-final. Bronze for Stella and another European A-Class medal.