A SWAG of gold medals returned with Palace Martial Arts on the trip back to Hamilton, with the group having plenty of success at the Australian Taekwondo Victoria State Championships in Melbourne last weekend.

Returning with more than 10 gold medals between then, it was an impressive outing for the Hamilton dojang.

Taylor Crane, Will Sweeney, Grace Dohle, Aisha Hendriks, Kellie Mitchell, Hayley Wilson and Stephanie Farquharson all made the trek with Crane, Sweeney, Dohle and Farquharson winning individual gold medals.

Crane and Sweeney, and Dohle and Wilson then combined to win the pairs in the 12-14-year old and 15-17-year-old sections respectively.

Hendriks finished second in the individual poomsae second dan black belt ages 18-30, Kellie Mitchell won the individual poomsae 3rd dan black belt 18-30, Farquharson won the 2nd dan black belt ages 30-40, with Farquharson and Hendriks backing up to win the power breaking.

Farquharson said it was great to have success and also was the first big event for a few in the group.

“It was really good, I think we all had a pretty successful day,” she said.

“When you have new people who haven’t competed before, it is a pretty foreign environment and everyone handled themselves really well.”

For the more experienced competitors, it was about balancing their own requirements as well as trying to help the less experienced in the group, in what was a busy day or many of them.

“We have to balance our own preparation and the pairs preparation and also the senior students, a little bit of coaching as well to help the others when they’re on the edge of the mat, especially for the new guys,” Farquharson said.

“You feel good when you finish for the day.”

Farquharson said the group will keep training and could take to the competition mats again mid-year.

“There is a few competition potentially into the middle of the year, but we don’t always get a lot of notice and so we just run with it,” she said.