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Two students of the Norwalk Tae Kwon Do Academy demonstrated their martial arts talents overseas and returned home handsomely rewarded from the British Tae Kwon Do Championships in Kidderminster, England. Katie Bishop and Marianne Sparan, juniors at Brien McMahon High School and Norwalk High School, respectively, were among 350 competitors representing the United States, England, Scotland, and Wales. Bishop and Sparan were two of 38 Americans selected to compete in the championships.
Bishop and Sparan, both 2nd degree black belts, thrived in their individual categories. Sparan placed first in the sparring category in the women's competition, while Bishop took the top spot in the patterns division.
"Patterns are a choreographed set of movements that depict an imaginary fighting scene," said Master Brice Bishop, founder of the Norwalk Tae Kwan Do Academy and father of Katie Bishop. "They learn these and they get progressively more challenging as they get higher in rank." Bishop also placed third in the sparring category and Sparan placed fourth in patterns. Bishop was also selected to the U.S. Women's National Team, which placed first in patterns and just missed out on the sparring title, losing to England by only five points.
"I think since they were the only ones from Connecticut, they represented our state and our school and Norwalk and everybody really well because they did so well," Master Bishop said. "The tenets of Tae Kwan Do are courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit and they showed each of those." Bishop and Sparan, both previous U.S. National Tae Kwon Do Champions, have been students at the Academy for 10 years.
The next challenge for Bishop and Sparan is a national competition in Rockwall, Texas in November.
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