SPORT 23Friday December 10 - Friday December 17 2010

A KU student hit the big time when she was elected to repre-sent the 2010 English National team in taekwondo.

Thea Ness, 26, studying environ-mental and earth resources manage-ment, has come a long way in four years from an inexperienced red belt to a competitive black belt.

Thea, orignally from Norway, said “There was a period where I was both a Norwegian and a UKTA British colour belt champion, but I think my greatest overall achieve-ment is the progress I’ve managed to do in such a short time.”

Having only intended to stay in England for six months, Thea start-ed training in a school instructed by the English National Team last year where most teammates had between up to 20 years experience. By luck the instructor told Thea: “I

see talent. If you ever come back to England and grade for your black belt here, there will be a spot for you in the team.”

After applying for a study ex-change programme, Thea returned in January 2010 and tried out for the team. In May 2010, she repre-

sented England individually in the ITF European Championships in Sweden.

On December 5, she competed in the Celtic cup, a small tournment-where all degrees of blackbelt com-peted. She faced the current Euro-pean Champion in the first round

but sadly lost. Still upbeat, Thea knows she has to improve her tim-ing and that her fighting technique has to be up to scratch in order to beat opponents and tournaments.

At times taekwondo proves to be a gruelling experience for Thea, as she struggles to find a balance be-

tween training and studying.“Last week I had to write a 3,000

word report from two days of field-work but I could not attend, because of the European Cup in Slovakia,” said Thea.

If Thea attends the World Cham-pionships held next year in New Zealand in March she risks failing one of her modules. However, she believes the sports performance programme at Kingston helps her to balance her love for Taekwondo and her studies.

Taekwondo is an important part of her life and an activity her fam-ily is involved in.

Despite all her achievements, Thea stays modest and looks up to her master taekwondo instructors who inspire her to be humble and to reach her full potential.

She said: “The best thing is when you meet masters and world cham-pions who are really modest about their achievements and at the same time manage to be so encouraging and interested and helpful.

“It’s part of our philosophy.”

BY AMIE MOWLAM-TETT & FARUK DIYENLI

K0949310K0810972

KINGSTON Karting B claimed their first win of the season, beat-ing rivals from UCL, Bristol and Brunel universities in a six-hour endurance race.

Kingston B, consisting of Canev Civelek, George Turner and Rupert de Saeger, finished a lap ahead of second place UCL after six hours of racing and five driver changes at a bitterly cold Rye House circuit in Hertfordshire.

Lightening quick reactions as the flag dropped, followed by a gutsy move at the first corner propelled Kingston B, driven by team presi-dent and third year economics stu-dent De Saeger, into the lead.

De Saeger said: “The start was great, I had better reactions off the line and then it was all about ag-gression and commitment into the first corner. I gave the other guy as little room as possible and managed to squeeze past.”

Kingston karting - also known as the KOKS - arrived at the track

in high hopes, with two strong teams both looking for podium fin-ishes in their twin-engined, 250cc ProKarts.

The B team showed excellent form throughout the day but favour-ites Kingston A were cursed with mechanical difficulties, qualifying down in 12th place out of 15.

The A team pushed hard at the start and battled up to fifth after two laps, but were forced to make two kart changes during the race, even-tually crossing the line in nineth.

De Saeger said afterwards: “It was a great team effort between all of the KOKS Racing teams as we all supported one another. Our pits stops were perfect and we all pushed hard, right to the checkered flag.”

The front runners exchanged places continuously, with Kingston B’s lead dropping to just three sec-onds after the last driver change. The final stint was left for George Turner, who put in some incredible laps at an unfamiliar Rye House, in-creasing his lead from UCL to over 40 seconds during his one-hour

stint. Kingston A had to change their first kart in the fourth hour as it was low on power, leaving them compromised on the straights. Their replacement kart lasted just two hours before suffering engine failure.

The team’s third kart proved tricky in the slower corners, forc-ing the team to limp home well down the order.

Despite this, social officer Dan

Fewell said: “I have never seen the club this devoted to team work, and I’m proud to be a part of it. There may have been just one winning team, but for them to win, it feels like the whole society has all won the race together.”

Kingston not only won the race, but also organised the event them-selves, following a suggestion by president De Saeger that a race against other universities would

promote the club’s profile.Fernando Moreira summed the

event up: “You can see the sense of pride a KOKS member has when on the day a whole society is will-ing to help and work to get at least one team on the podium.”

Kingston will take the motiva-tion from this win into the British University Karting Championship, which kicks off at Teesside Auto-drome in February.

BY ALISTAIR CHARLTONK0805903

Kingston comfortably drifting in the lead Craig Robertson

TAEKWON-GO GIRL

Thea Ness in training practicing her moves on a team mate Thea Ness

Kingston karters are crowned champions