Four members of the Hae Taekwondo Club in Whakatāne will be showcasing their talents at a national tournament this weekend.

Camryn Eastwood, 15, Deonaid Eastwood,17, Joanna Northey, 37, and Jordan Northey-Singsam, 10, have all been named in the Midlands team competing in the nationals at Palmerston North tomorrow and Sunday.

Gemma Atkinson, the club’s head instructor, said this weekend’s competition was an exciting opportunity for the club members to show their skills against high-quality opponents.

“Last year, we had three members compete and they came home with a few medals. This year, we have four competing and hopefully we can beat the medal count from last year. Then, going forward, hopefully keep growing our numbers to go and compete.”

She said there had been some interest from younger competitors about competing in the future.

“We want our members to want to be selected for these sorts of tournaments. It’s exciting for the four attending and I think they will all do very well.

“They are all excited to get down there and take part. Hopefully, Camryn can match her sparring deeds of 2023. Deonaid is going down for the first time, as is Jordan, while Jo picked up bronze last year, so it will be a great challenge for them all.”

Camryn is competing in sparring-junior light/middle fourth-first gup and is one to watch out for having won gold last year. She is also competing in power- female junior gup power and specialty - female junior gup specialty.

Deonaid is competing in the patterns - female junior fifth-sixth gup and sparring - female junior under-52 kilograms.

Northey is in patterns - female advanced senior first dan and sparring - female advanced seniors hyper first - sixth dan

Jordan is the final of the four competing, and lines up in the patterns - female peewee seventh - eighth gup and sparring female peewee light seventh and eighth gup.

Eastwood said they were a growing club and opportunities like these were exciting.

“There are already a lot of kids who want to compete next year. It’s quite cool to hear that. It will be brilliant if they bring a medal back.”

The club was started in 2022 by Cheryl Chase after she moved to the area from Wellington. When she relocated back to the capital late last year, she passed on the reins to Atkinson.

There are currently about 40 members, and they train twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Anyone interested in taekwondo can turn up to a training session to give it a go.

There are sessions for five to 11-year-olds from 5.30pm to 6.45pm and for 12 years and older from 6.30pm to 8pm.