New Zealand Four Medals At 2008 Commonwealth Taekwondo Championshps

The New Zealand team has completed the 2008 Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships in Winnipeg, Canada with the total of five medals to its credit.

New Zealand's team of seven competitors won one silver, and four bronze medals. The Canadian's clearly dominated the event with a large team, however New Zealand's finished ahead of nations such as Australia who won a silver and two bronze.

Kiwi Olympian, Matthew Beach(Wellington) won silver overall after losing the final to a Canadian 6-3. However it was a hard fought run to the final, with Beach having to face his teammate Dafydd Sanders(Auckland), in the preliminaries, winning that match by Golden-Point in the sudden death play-off.

Fellow heavyweight Michael Marsh won the bronze after three tough matches. While Sanders won his first match impressively with a big points win over another Canadian heavyweight, and then narrowly lost out on a medal to an Australian in the repercharge.

In the men's middleweight division, Nicolas Dorman(Auckland) won two out of his three matches to come away with the bronze, and in the lightweight division, Canterbury’s Alan Brien had a similar run, winning two out of three to also claim the bronze.

Hayley Schofield from Lower Hutt in the female middleweight division still managed to secure a bronze after losing her first fight to a much taller Canadian opponent. Auckland’s Diana Kasad missed out on a medal in the female bantamweight division.

It was the first international event for the New Zealand team featuring the new electronic body protectors. Five members of the New Zealand team will stay on in Canada for another three days to attend a training camp with the Canadian and Australian national teams before returning to New Zealand for the Oceania Championships in Auckland on the December 6-7.