THE United Martial Arts Academy, Bradford, held its first Taekwondo tournament for almost two years on Sunday December 26 at St Margaret’s Church (The Thornbury Centre).

It comes as a huge relief to the martial arts club, with the Covid-19 pandemic causing huge stress to the Bradford business.

It ripped through the heart of the organisation, ensuring many fighting students didn’t return to the fulfill their ambition of achieving a black belt after any possible momentum was put on hold.

The academy lost over 70% of their students during the pandemic, and coach Mohammed Zamoord admitted that the last couple of years have been extremely difficult for the business.

He said: “ I have never experienced anything like this in my 27 years of teaching, year after year the little things that were taken for granted suddenly became a mission to accomplish.

“Taekwondo is all about momentum and if that momentum is taken away then it can be difficult to get going again. We have students from the ages of five to fifteen coming to our classes, and they have had that taken away from them. The ambition can disappear, the commitment can disappear and other things come up which may prevent a student from coming to one of our classes, for example school studies.

."We really hope we can get back to the numbers we had before, but it will take time which is expected. We are seeing students return in small numbers at the moment but in stages."

Despite their recent struggles, there is still plenty of hope for The United Martial Arts Centre, who will be encouraged by the success of the tournament which was held on December 26.

Zaynab Zamoord, a six year-old pupil from Westminster Academy was the star competitor (pictured centre), taking part in her first competition and winning gold in the junior white belt category .

Reflecting on the event, coach Zamoord said “The Taekwondo Championships were a huge success after the colossal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our organisation and community as a whole. I never thought we would be holding a competition so soon after.

"We lost 70% of our students during the Covid-19 pandemic and it obviously affected us greatly, both in pride terms and financial terms.

"I'd would like to say a big thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund, whose support throughout the pandemic has so far been incredible, also the dedication and commitment from our students and their parents has been unbelievable.

"I really hope that the success of the tournament encourages new students to turn up, and old students to return. "Things are beginning to look up again and we can see a light at the end of the tunnel."

If you would like more information about Taekwondo and the classes held, you can contact Zamoord on 07852897509 or email: info@unitedmartialart.co.uk.