TAVISTOCK’S Tate Budge travelled to Swindon on Saturday to take part in the UK ITF ( International Taekwon-do Federation ) finals night where the top two nationally ranked competitors go head to head for the title of overall UK champion.

Tate went as top ranked in his two divisions and came away with the titles of UK Champion in under 18s third degree black belt patterns and also UK Champion in (U18s) middle weight (under 65kg) sparring.

Tate, aged 16, has now guaranteed his place in the UK Team for this summers ITF World Taekwon-do Championships to be held in Brighton this coming July where he hopes to repeat his success of 2014 and become a world champion once more.

Tate has a hectic training schedule ahead of him with regular weekly trips to St Austell to train as well as training in Tavistock and  fortnightly / monthly trips to train in Bristol and with the the UK Squad in London as they prepare for this summers competition.

His father Dave Budge told the Times; ’To become UK Champion as a third degree in patterns having only been promoted to that level last October really shows that the level of dedication Tate puts towards his Taekwon-do is really paying off and he would like to thank all those involved with his training especially Richards TKD ,everyone at Trenic in London , Brit Spirit TKD , Stoke Gifford TKD and Thornbury TKD  for the time and help they have all given him.’