The weekend of 2nd and 3rd of May 2026 saw the GB Para Poomsae Team attend Lee Valley Athletics Centre, London, to compete in the G2 ranked London International Poomsae Championships and the G3 ranked Presidents Cup Championships.
Six athletes from the GB Para Poomsae squad attended the event on both days, competing in P21 senior male, P21 senior female, P22 senior female and P23 senior female and P33 senior female categories.
Our first matches involved P21 males Bradley Brockies, reigning World Champion, and Peter Sellwood, new into the squad in 2025 but already with a European title under his belt.
Bradley got a Bye in the first round and met Peter in the semi-final, the two British athletes showed incredible technique during their contest, with Peter edging the scoring to progress into the final. So strong was the contest that Bradley was awarded best para male athlete of the day. Peter progressed to meet Spain in the final taking the gold medal with some very consistent high scores.
P21 Female World Champion Summer Waheed competed next, and with a Bye into the semi-final comfortably took the match to go on to meet USA in the final. Another very strong performance ensured that Summer took the gold medal to add to her impressive collection of silverware.
In the P22 Senior female category, Gabrielle Toas had a disappointing start to the weekend's competition by going out in the first round, but would look to make amends in the President's Cup the day after.
Iona Craig also won gold after an impressive performance in the P23 senior female category, while Sam Carrington also took gold in the P33 senior female division.
After such impressive performances across the board on Saturday, it was testament to the hard work and commitment of the squad that the GB Para Poomsae team took home the 2nd Place team trophy due to securing for Gold medals and a Bronze.
Sunday saw the Presidents Cup Championship take centre stage, with the competition close to being a repeat of day one, except for an additional round in the P21 senior male competition for Bradley.
Having progressed through his first outing of the day, Bradley would go on to have an all-British semi-final against Peter once again. Both players really pulled out all the stops and improved on their previous day scores, much to their credit, in the end Peter took the match forcing Bradley into bronze position again.
Summer improved on her scores from the day before to take gold once again int the P21 senior female class, while Gabrielle was much improved in the P22 senior female division, but unfortunately missed out on the medal positions.
Iona secured P23 senior female gold again, as did Sam in P33 senior female, with both players managing to improve on their scores from the first day of action in London.
The consistent performances of the whole team were sufficient to secure the 2nd place Team trophy for a second successive day, highlighting the strength of the Para Poomsae Development Pathway throughout British Taekwondo.
Huge congratulations to everyone who took part across the two day's of action at Lee Valley Athletics Centre, you can all be incredibly proud of your efforts on the international stage and we look forward to even more success in the future.
Para Poomsae and Classification
As the weekend's competition highlights, the standard of performance of Para Poomsae athletes is so high across the board, and this demonstrates the dedication that these athletes have to their sport.
All the GB Para Poomsae Squad who compete internationally have undergone a rigorous classification process conducted by World Taekwondo trained medical and technical classifiers. Whether for an intellectual or physical impairment the stringent testing by the WT classifiers ensures that all taekwondo athletes can compete on a fair and equal playing field.
Classification consists of reviewing official medical information followed by an in-person assessment which consists of technical and/or intellectual tests according to the classification being applied for.
Classification is a formal process and is required for any taekwondo athlete who wishes to compete as a para-athlete internationally and hopefully in future Paralympic games.
If you would like any information about Para Poomsae or para classification, please feel free to contact Para.poomsaeperformance@britishtaekwondo.org or Disability@britishtaekwondo.org
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