The Threshold Taekwon-Do School hosted two full days of international taekwondo black belt grading with master Steve Pellow, of Auckland, as the examiner.
It was just the second black belt grading held in Dunedin, after a testing in Mosgiel in 2012.
Normally, Dunedin clubs produce one or two candidates every couple of years, so candidates have to go off to Auckland or Wellington to grade.
However, there were eight candidates who lined up in Dunedin.
Seven of the candidates were going for the black belt first dan, while one other exponent was going for the black belt second dan.
Most of the grading is in private but the formal part of the grading took place in public and plenty of spectators came to watch.
Candidates ranged in age from 15 to their mid-50s.
Five of the candidates were from the Threshold club, two were from Alexandra and one was from Mosgiel.
Destruction is part of the test and includes breaking 2.5cm-thick pine boards with a flying kick over obstacles and over head height and breaking three of those boards with a side-kick from standing. The other destruction is breaking stacks of six clay roof tiles with a punch for adult males and three tiles for adult females.
Candidates had an anxious wait for results to be emailed out as the examiner was not returning to Auckland until the following weekend.
All but one candidate was successful with a resit awaiting the other candidate.
It is likely there will be another grading in Dunedin next year given the number of students at Threshold who have their red belt.
The successful candidates were Mark Baldwin (46), Louis Whiteburn (20), Oscar Valentine (15) and Matt Clarkson (17), of the Threshold club. Clarkson got the second-degree black belt with an A pass, while the other three got first degrees.
Mosgiel’s Bob Brown (44) got a first-degree black belt, while Alexandra’s Deb Hart (47) and Luke Carden (40) also gained first-degree black belts, Carden getting an A pass.
They are the first two competitors from Alexandra to reach this level.
