TAVISTOCK martial artist Tate Budge will be heading to the ITF (International Taekwon-do Federation) World Championships to once again represent his country as part of Team UK.

The 16 year-old will be competing in the under 18s third degree black belt patterns, the U18s under 65kg sparring as well as making up one of a team of six for the U18s multi discipline team events.

It’s been a year of achievement for Tate, who has won three national titles,  two overall UK titles and also being promoted to third degree black belt.

It has also been a year of sacrifices for Tate, who has trained up to 14 hours a week when possible and has regularly travelled to St Austell and Bristol as well as training in Tavistock. Tate is part of Trenic Taekwon-do and also trains with them in London under the guidence of grand master Trevor Nicholls. 

As part of Team UK Tate has been travelling to London every weekend for the last six weekends to train with the UK squad ahead of this month’s championships.

Tate thanks all his instructors especially Mr and Mrs Richards at Richards TKD,  Pete Smith at Brit Spirit Martial Arts, Gary Burdock and Kevin Hamil now of Discovery Martial Arts, grand master Nicholls and everyone at Trenic TKD.

Tate (and the rest of the family) would also like to say a huge thank you to Paul Allen and David Glanville and Tavistock College,  The Lions Club and all their family and friends who have helped Tate reach this year’s World Championships.