Published: Thursday, 8th February, 2007 12:00pm

Samantha kicks on from early tae kwon-do promise

by Sportsdesk

Print | Email

Pic by: Dunfermline Press

WHEN she was just eight, Samantha Gill was the youngest tae kwon-do black belt in Scotland.

Now, nine years on, the Rosyth teenager is officially the best black belt in Scotland having been named recently as junior female black belt league champion.

The pretty 17-year-old from Kings Road competed in the black belt league throughout 2006, which sees all the black belts in Scotland contesting three competitions throughout the year.

Samantha competed in the junior female section, winning gold for her sparring and destruction and bronze for patterns and flying high kick, giving her the title of overall junior female champion.

It was Samantha"s penultimate junior competition and now she"s hoping she can kick on from there by winning gold for Scotland at the Global Tae kwon-do Federation junior European Championships in Greece at the end of March.

Beyond that, her long-term goal is to make the adult team to compete in the seventh World Championships in South Africa in 2008. 'Competing in the World Championships would mean everything to me, it would be my first adult World Championships and hopefully by then, I"ll have already had a year training with the adults,' she told Press Sport.

Samantha won team gold and silver and two individual silvers at the junior European Championships in 2005 and two team silvers at last year"s junior World Championships as well as several golds at the Scottish Championships.

She first took up the sport at six because she used to watch the other kids doing it when she went along to swimming lessons.

'I was pretty hyperactive as a child so I liked it because you were running and jumping about all the time,' she recalled.

Samantha"s going for her second degree black belt in November and is also studying for her HND in health and fitness at Telford College.

Anyone interested in sponsoring Samantha ahead of the championships should contact 728201.