Worcestershire Martial Arts Celebrates Four-Medal Haul at ITF World Cup 2026
Athletes from Worcestershire Martial Arts have returned home from Benidorm, Spain, with an impressive four-medal haul after competing on the world stage at the 10th ITF Taekwon-Do World Cup 2026 and the 3rd ITF Taekwon-Do Adapted World Cup 2026.
The Worcester-based club was represented across a wide range of events, with athletes competing in sparring, patterns, special technique, pre-arranged sparring and adapted Taekwon-Do.
The scale of the event made the team’s achievements particularly significant. Organisers reported 5,671 registrations, including more than 2,681 athletes, 781 coaches, 259 teams, 112 umpires and 449 officials, with competitors travelling from 57 nations across five continents.
For Worcestershire Martial Arts, Sebastian Hodgetts produced the club’s standout gold-medal performance, becoming a World Cup champion in sparring.
Club instructor and England competitor Sally Gleaves also reached the podium, securing bronze in the 4th–6th Dan Individual Pattern division.
Sally then teamed up with fellow Worcestershire Martial Arts competitor Adam Monks in Pre-Arranged Sparring, where the pair added a further bronze medal to the club’s tally.
The club’s international success continued at the 3rd ITF Taekwon-Do Adapted World Cup 2026, where Eleanor Warrington competed in the Adapted Individual 3rd Dan Pattern event and finished second in the world, earning a silver medal for Worcestershire Martial Arts and England.
The club’s medal results were:
🥇 Sebastian Hodgetts – Gold, Sparring
🥈 Eleanor Warrington – Silver, Adapted Individual 3rd Dan Pattern
🥉 Sally Gleaves – Bronze, 4th–6th Dan Individual Pattern
🥉 Sally Gleaves & Adam Monks – Bronze, Pre-Arranged Sparring
The medal haul is particularly notable for its breadth, with Worcestershire Martial Arts athletes reaching World Cup podiums across sparring, individual patterns, pre-arranged sparring and adapted Taekwon-Do.
However, the medal table tells only part of the story.
Every member of the Worcestershire Martial Arts team stepped onto the World Cup stage against strong international opposition, and several athletes progressed through competitive draws to reach the later stages of their divisions, including quarter-finals.
Those performances deserve recognition in their own right.
Reaching the latter stages of a World Cup event is a significant achievement, particularly in divisions featuring athletes from across dozens of countries. While not every strong performance ends with a medal, progressing through rounds, testing yourself against international opposition and producing your best performance under pressure are all important measures of success.
For some members of the team, Benidorm was their first experience competing at a World Cup. For others, it provided another opportunity to test themselves on one of the biggest stages in ITF Taekwon-Do.
Across the week, the WMA athletes demonstrated commitment, resilience and sportsmanship, supporting one another through both the highs and disappointments that inevitably come with international competition.
The experience gained from those performances will continue to benefit the athletes long after the World Cup itself.
Competing internationally gives athletes the opportunity to see different styles, experience larger competition environments, manage pressure and learn from both victories and defeats. Those lessons can be every bit as valuable as the medals themselves.
For Worcestershire Martial Arts, the World Cup was therefore about much more than the final medal count.
It represented the culmination of months of preparation, training and commitment from the athletes themselves, as well as the coaches, families, parents and supporters who helped the team prepare for Benidorm.
The club is immensely proud of the way the entire team represented Worcestershire Martial Arts and England, both on and off the competition floor.
Some athletes returned home as World Cup medallists. Others reached the later rounds of fiercely contested divisions. Others gained valuable international experience that will help shape their future development.
Every one of those achievements deserves to be celebrated.
Worcestershire Martial Arts would like to congratulate every athlete who stepped onto the mats in Benidorm, and thank everyone who supported the team throughout the build-up to the event and during the competition itself.
The 2026 ITF World Cup will be remembered not only for the four medals brought back to Worcester, but for the performances, experiences, friendships and memories created by the whole team.
Congratulations to the entire Worcestershire Martial Arts World Cup Team 2026.
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