A young girl and her mom have both won gold medals in a national level martial arts championship on the same date.
Last December, 43-year-old Lisa Rose won a gold medal in the British Taekwondo Championship and during the same event, her only daughter, 15-year-old Lucy, won the top prize in the under 18s division.
Learn more about this story in the video below.
[rumble video_id=v666cn domain_id=u7nb2]
Video credit: Rumble
Lisa started training for martial arts around four years back mainly because she wanted to be engaged in her daughter Lucy’s passion.
She ended up winning the gold medal just two months after she got her black belt.
Lucy originally started Karate at an age of just three and earned her black belt at 12 after which she switched to Taekwondo.
The mom-daughter duo trains five days a week and has won numerous honors at a number of national-level competitions.
Lucy was named the best in grading 2019 which is the highest honor anyone can get in Taekwondo at her age.
Lisa, definitely proud of Lucy’s achievements, said: “When Lucy turned 12, I thought she wouldn’t want to do much with me anymore, so I thought I’d give it a go.
“I had done boxing in the past and always wanted to do a martial art.
“I thought it would be a great way to do something together and spend some quality time together. While it’s technically different, Lucy took to it like a duck to water.
“It was quite hard for me to learn new skills.”
In the championship where Lisa won the gold, points are given depending on punches and kicks, and the fighter who accumulates the most points after two minutes of the fight is declared the winner.
To qualify for the final, Lisa won two matches and beat a black belt fifth, a far more experienced and high-ranking fighter, in the last round to secure the gold medal.
Lisa, a resident of Bury, Lancs., said: “In the final, I had just watched Lucy win her fight. She had won gold and the pressure was on – I didn’t want to let her down.
“My second fight was a draw and it went to golden point. I thought ‘I have to do this now.’
“I was up against someone who was a fifth Dan black belt, I thought ‘oh my god this is it, I’ve got no chance against her.’
“But I thought ‘I’m just going to go for it,’ Lucy was watching and that spurred me on. It was incredible to pick up gold together, it could not have worked out better than that.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Lucy, who has both parents supporting her in following her passion, had to contest with fighters up to three years older than her to win the gold.
Lucy said: “It’s a great way to spend time with each other, we can form a bond that is quite rare between a teenager and their mom.
“She encourages me loads and builds my confidence.
“I obviously have less time to revise but I find a way I can revise in the car on the way to and from Bradford and the journeys to and from all the competitions.
“Doing taekwondo helps me de-stress and focus on something else. It was great to win the Gold, especially at this level.
“We had both been nervous leading up to the British championships, more so than any other competition because we were now against Black Belts.
“But because we were doing it together we were able to reassure each other and help each other with our nerves.
“I was so proud of my mom winning too and going home together with our trophies and sharing in the joy was just incredible.”
Replaced!