General News
25 November, 2025
Medal swag for Buloke Taekwon-do
Four Taekwondoin from Buloke Taekwon-do earned a swag of medals at the United ITF National Championships in Newcastle earlier this month.
Rubin Jane-Higgins, Joshua Woods, Cameron Jones, and Lisa Woods placed in the top three for several competition categories.
Lisa Woods won gold in the female sparring (18 to 39 years) and silver in the female patterns, while Cameron Jones earned gold in the junior male yellow belt patterns category.
Rubin Jane-Higgins won a silver in the coloured belt peewee sparring class, and Joshua Woods took home bronze in the peewee special techniques.
Instructor Phill Zdybel said he was rapt with the group's performance.
"We did all right for our first tournament," he said.
"The group put in a lot of effort, and it showed.
"Competing at the nationals is a tough thing to do, but it's extra tough for a group that had to travel from Warracknabeal to Newcastle."
Events included sparring, patterns, power breaking, special techniques and a team self-defence demo.
Mrs Woods said competing at the national championships with her son was a rewarding experience.
"We had some nerves at the start, but there was a real community atmosphere throughout the championships," she said.
"I had people coming up to me in the morning, introducing themselves and being quite friendly, and then we'd compete against each other later in the day."
Mrs Woods said she was proud of her son, who faced off against the Australian and Global champion in his age group.
There are four Taekwondoin in the Woods family, with Lisa's other two sons joining the duo at the Wednesday classes.
However, a year into her journey, Mrs Woods now practices Taekwon-do four days a week to progress.
"Josh and I love pushing ourselves, so we do conditioning and kickboxing classes on top of Taekwon-do," she said.
"The conditioning classes paid off, because I competed against several women much younger than me.
"The sparring rounds go for 120 seconds each, which doesn't sound like much, but when you're into your third fight of the day, the conditioning paid off."
The Buloke Taekwon-do are already looking ahead to the next contest, with the Victorian Regional Championships in Donald on December 6 and the Global Championships in Melbourne in April 2026.
In the meantime, they will continue training at the Warracknabeal Town Hall every Monday from 4.30pm.
