Taekwondo siblings receive prestigious martial arts award
Whilst most brothers throughout the country get in trouble for fighting, a couple of sparring siblings from Bradford have been awarded for their combative natures at this year’s Martial Arts Illustrated National Awards.
Mohammed Zamoord and Mohammed Wahed, from Undercliffe, in Bradford, were invited to the high-profile event earlier this month in Burton-upon-Trent to commend their services to teaching taekwondo across West Yorkshire.
The duo have been running classes in various communities – in Bradford, Dewsbury and Batley – for almost two decades and were presented with Martial Arts Illustrated (MAI) Award by the Hall of Fame Authorities.
On receiving his award, Zamoord said: “It was a great sense of achievement. We have been involved in martial arts for almost 20 years so to get this type of national recognition is an amazing feeling.
“We were fortunate we trained with the best National taekwondo champions, winning titles in Wales, Scotland, England and the north of England many times over.
“We carried on our success by teaching our skills to the youth and passing on our knowledge to students who have been part of our organisation the United Martial Arts Academy.”
The awards evening was attended by guests from throughout the martial arts world, including the highly respected Richard Bustillo.
Richard is one of the few remaining few students who was taught by the legendary martial arts movie star Bruce Lee and was on hand to speak to the award recipients.
Wahed added: “It was a huge privilege and an honour to be amongst such highly talented people from the martial arts community.
“We caught up with some old faces and had a wonderful evening. Richard commented this type of event didn’t happen many years ago, as people from different martial arts would not talk to one another.
“He said it was great for him to see the martial arts community in the UK getting on with each other, respecting and celebrating together – whether it be Judo, Karate, Taekwondo, MMA or Aikido.”
Zamoord and Wahed are currently spearheading their new project called ‘Support Taekwondo’, funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
The project will kick off in early December and is aimed to help young children and adults in Bradford with learning, behavioural and emotional difficulties.
