Previous Winners

The University of Southampton Taekwondo Club (SOU) has been distinguished as the 2024 Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year!

The club and its committee have demonstrated exceptional performance across numerous aspects. The judging panel lauded the club’s impressive membership increases this year, a success driven by their robust recruitment campaigns, including a personalised handbook and engaging demonstrations during Fresher’s Week. Southampton’s club has cultivated a strong, inclusive club identity and a welcoming family-like culture, with a clear vision for future expansion.

The club’s dedication to establishing a reliable framework is evident through their successful efforts in negotiating a large grant to subsidise costs for members and their diverse instructional team, which includes a Head Instructor, an Instructor, and three Assistant Instructors. This structural strength, well-articulated in their annual report, positions them for continued success.

Their achievements in competitions have been outstanding. In the 2023-2024 Season, where Southampton secured 2nd place in the Overall Series Team Championships ranking, with a total of 67 medals won across the Series!

The club’s report was prepared by Louise Gibb, Team Captain of the University of Southampton Taekwondo Club. The club plans to allocate the BSTF’s Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year prize of £1,000 towards capital investments and club development activities.

Congratulations to all the dedicated instructors, committee members, and club members, past and present, of Southampton University Taekwondo Club!

King’s College London (KCL) has been awarded 2023 Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year!

The club and its committee shone brightly across multiple categories of the award. The judging panel praised the club’s remarkable 60% increase in membership this year, attributed to their effective branding and outreach efforts. KCL have demonstrated a strong club identity and culture with an eye to growing this in future years.

The club’s commitment to creating a dependable structure through successful funding and sponsorship proposals as well as a coaching restructure sets them up in good stead for the future and was communicated well in their application.

Similarly their competition results have taken great strides forwards. 4th and 6th places at the Winter and Spring Championships in 2022-23 marking a meteoric rise from 33rd and 16th the previous year.

The winning proposal was written by Damien Chan (Vice-President), Ariela Veizaj (Captain), and Hamnah Rassen (Co-Social Secretary) of the KCL Taekwondo Club Committee 2023-24. KCL receive the recognition of the taekwondo and university sports community and a prize of £1,000 towards the club’s development activities and capital investments, made possible thanks to the generosity of BSTF donors.

Congratulations to all the dedicated staff members and the current and past club committee members of King’s College London Taekwondo Club!

University College London (UCL) have triumphed as the winners of the 2022 Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year Award! The club and committee excelled in a high number of the award’s categories. The judging panel noted the club’s ability to attract and retain a large membership, and the high levels of service and engagement they provided to their members. The club’s social media presence was extensive and delivered to a high standard. The club’s substantial number of core and supplementary training sessions, and their targeted session content, was a highlight of their proposal. Furthermore, the team recorded 10 UCL high performance athlete support grants from their institution, a testament to their ability to attract dual-career/ aspiring performance athletes. UCL’s 2021-22 competition results remained, characteristically, extremely strong, seeing them top the BSTF Team Champions standings for the 5th year running, and scoring second place in the Overall Series BUCS Points standings, ranked by institution. The winning proposal was prepared by Michelle Lai (General Secretary) and Alex Chivers (President) of the UCL Taekwondo Club Committee 2022-23. Winners receive both the recognition of the whole taekwondo and university sport community and a substantial BSTF prize, made possible thanks to the generosity of our donors, of £1,000! The prize is to be used towards the club’s development activities and capital purchases. Congratulations to all of the supporting staff members, club and committee members past and present of University College London Taekwondo Club, led by 2021-22 club president Hanqing Huang.

The University of Nottingham have triumphed in their bid for the Dr. Un-Young Kim Club of the Year Award. The last academic year was tumultuous and challenging for us all, and every Club of the Year submission we received highlighted examples of dedication, resilience and innovation from clubs across the country, operating without the usual focal points of recruitment fairs, training, gradings, social activities or BUCS competitions. The University of Nottingham’s club management committee proved themselves particularly adept at navigating the difficult conditions, making great efforts to keep their members training throughout 2020-21 – alternating between periods of training online, on outdoor courts and running tracks, and during various levels of socially distanced indoor training, offering many hours of training across the many return to sport phases – while maintaining clear communication with members, successfully attracting new members, hosting frequent online social events, taking advantage of online umpire education courses, taking part in online patterns competitions, running successful charity fundraising activities and more. In summary, the committee were able to maintain their momentum and enthusiasm admirably, demonstrating indomitable spirit in the face of adversity. A huge congratulations once again to University of Nottingham Taekwondo club’s members, supporters, to University of Nottingham Sport and UoN Students’ Union staff, and their club coaches and club committee, led by 2020-21 president Darius Davidson.

The University of Birmingham win the Dr. Un-Young Kim Club of the Year Award for the academic year of 2019-20. This year’s nominees were particularly closely contested – it has been Birmingham’s high performance across a broad range of activities that edged out their impressive win. The club’s consistent membership growth and expansion of specialised coaching to accommodate for their members has paid dividends. The judges also noted the delivery of training options tailored to individual members, consistent improvement and competition success across multiple disciplines, and the consistently high administrative and leadership performance demonstrated by their club committee. Congratulations once again to University of Birmingham Taekwondo’s members and support staff, coaching staff, and the club committee led by president Fabian Burkhardt.

The University of Bath Taekwondo Club have retained their title as Club of the Year for 2019! Going from strength to strength in competition performances, Bath’s team have progressed from 38th in the overall team rankings in 2017 up to 6th in 2018, topping that result with a record 2nd place finish in 2019. This was further underlined by a 1st place finish in the Indomitable Team Trophy rankings (based on average points per athlete) and the joint highest number of European Universities Sports Association (EUSA) Championships qualifying student-athletes, demonstrating the quality of their squad. Performance was only part of the equation, with the club continuing to develop new activities and secure new sponsorship, handily top their SU’s membership targets, taking action to enhance welfare and inclusivity, while the club’s committee and coaching team delivered a extensive number of taught sessions.  Above all, the club have continued to innovate and experiment year round, with impressive drive to improve their offer to members. Congratulations to all club members, coaches, university and union staff, and to the club committee led by chair Jae Lee.

The University of Bath Taekwondo Club have come out on top for the 2017-18 academic year in a highly competitive field. Their members achieved not only a top 10 overall team points finish this year from over 50 universities total, but a highly impressive year on year improvement, rising from 38th in the final team ranking in 2016-17 to their 6th place finish in 2017-18. Their competition results were matched by impressive achievements off the mat, including membership growth, multi-discipline training offer, partnership working and fundraising successes. Congratulations to the club’s members, their coaching staff, university and union support staff, and club committee led by chair Sameh Hussain.

University College London win the inaugural University Taekwondo Club of the Year Award for the academic year spanning 2016-17. The judges were impressed with the club’s ability to attract a high number of new members while keeping a focus on individual members, effective leadership of the club committee, and sustained winning competition performances across all disciplines and grade divisions. Congratulations to UCLU Taekwondo’s members, their coaching staff, their department, and the club committee led by president Chaneil Patel.

About the award

The British Student Taekwondo Federation is delighted to invite submissions for the Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year Award. The award will highlight the hard work and dedication of club committees across the country, celebrating those who have provided an outstanding service to their members, to student taekwondo and to the wider community!

Developing an exceptional club requires an exceptional effort from its elected committee, club members and coaches. The winning club will have excelled in numerous aspects of club management and performance, on and off the court.

Win a prize of £1,000!

The winning club receives an award of £1,000! The prize must be used toward club development and capital purchases.

The award is reserved for a single university club each year that has excelled across the board in: club management, club development, media management, member recruitment & retention, member development & support, competition performance, team spirit and more. Your club may be maintaining a winning record while continuing to develop at the highest level, or you may be the most rapidly developing smaller club that has made the greatest strides in the last 12 months. A club committee receiving the Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year Award can be assured to have performed at an exceptionally high level across the academic year.

The Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year Award is named in remembrance of Dr. Un-Yong Kim, former IOC vice president, founding president of World Taekwondo Federation and Kukkiwon, global sports leader and diplomat. Dr. Un-Yong Kim is widely known as the “father of Olympic Taekwondo” for having made the greatest of all individual contributions to the development and recognition of taekwondo as an Olympic sport. The award celebrates an exemplary university club committee that has made a significant contribution to their members on and off the court, nurturing and growing university taekwondo through their passion and organisational excellence this year.

Summary submission guidance

Club presidents should nominate their club for the award by email before the submission deadline.

Your submission must describe your club’s recent activities and achievements from the previous calendar year. E.g. for the 2024 award, the period to include in your report is:

  • 1st Jan 2024 – 31st Dec 2024
  • The period to base your submission on will include the end of the previous club committee’s time in office (please engage them when writing your submission), the results from the last BSTF Championships Series, and your current committee’s work over the summer and the start of this year’s season.

Your submission must be less than 3,000 words; it should tell the story of your club’s year, it may include photographs, tables and charts; it must be authored exclusively by the club’s committee members; it must be produced to a high standard; it must include on the cover page: the full name and contact details of the primary author and all club committee members who served that year (please also include the previous year’s committee for any achievements from before your committee took over); it must include a spending plan (for capital and long term development related purchases only, match funded projects may be considered); it must include, but is not limited to, the following chapter headings:

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Club management and advancement
  3. Training and grading provision
  4. Club promotion and communications
  5. Competitions
  6. Education
  7. Final summary
  8. Appendix
  9. Fund spending plan

See the detailed guidance later on this page for further details.

After the submission deadline we shall shortlist finalists and contact their respective sports departments to discuss the clubs’ achievements in more detail.

The winning club will be announced through our media channels. The announcement will typically be made at the end of the Spring Championships in March. We will also share an accompanying press release for you to share with your institution’s union/ sports department, student newspaper, and any other sponsors, departments or media outlets you wish to distribute this to.

We look forward to receiving your submission and wish you every success in taking your club and student Taekwondo from strength to strength in the coming year!

Detailed submission guidance

  1. Club Management (QL)
    1. Provision of a range of inclusive social activities for your club members
    2. Committee management training courses attended
    3. Successful club fundraising / sponsorship gained / grant funding bids awarded
  2. Club Training Provision (QL)
    1. Total hours of core taekwondo training your club provided to members throughout year
    2. Total hours of specialised/ supporting training your club provided to members throughout year
  3. Club Advancement (QL)
    1. Introduction of new training opportunities &/or methods for current and future club members (with a focus on how these improve your club’s capacity and were designed to be sustainable in the long term)
    2. Evolution of new management processes &/or tools for current and future club management committees (with a focus on how these improve your club’s capacity and were designed to be sustainable in the long term)
    3. Investment in new equipment for the benefit of current and future club members
    4. Other novel club initiatives
  4. Club Promotion & Communication (QL):
    1. Social media and promotional activity frequency
    2. Social media and promotional activity quality
    3. Photos albums and montage videos (e.g., promotional / highlight reel) produced & published
    4. Wider media coverage engendered (e.g., articles in university newspapers)
  5. Overall Points Standings (QN)
    1. Your club’s final team placement (based on total points won at the end of the season)
  6. Overall Team Championships Standings (QN)
    1. Your club’s final team placement (based on total team ranking points won)
  7. Club Engagement (QN)
    1. Percentage change in the number of student-athletes taking part in the Championships Series compared to the previous year
  8. Club Volunteering (QN)
    1. Percentage of your club’s members volunteering at events beyond quotas (pre-event day set-up volunteering and competition day(s), all umpiring/ volunteering levels are each counted separately)
    2. Successful fundraising by your club for external charities
  9. Club Education (QN)
    1. Percentage of your club’s members attending a (free) online (L4) and/or a (free) in person (L3) umpire course
  10. Quality of your Award Submission Document (QL)
    1. The overall quality of your committee’s Dr. Un-Yong Kim Club of the Year Award submission document, including: structure, detail, conciseness, readability and salience

Scoring categories provided here are for guidance only and are subject to change.

  1. Each submission is ranked 1 to n in each of the scoring categories (1 = first place, 2 = second place and so on, where n = total number of submissions received)
  2. The best possible (i.e., lowest) score is 10, if your club achieves 1st place in every scoring category 1-10.
  3. Categories are scored either Quantitatively (QN: this data is read from our database; where there are multiple scoring sub-categories these are scored individually and then summed to produce an overall category score) or Qualitatively (QL: based on the independent judges’ ranking 1 to n in that category and then averaged across all judges; for qualitatively scored categories you must provide as much evidence and context as possible in your submission document).
  4. Note that most quantitative (QN) categories are scored as a percentage of your club’s membership (for clubs of >5 student-athletes) and not on absolute numbers, hence, having fewer club members in total is not a barrier to success.

Scoring criteria provided here are for guidance only and are subject to change.

Submissions for club of the year must include a section detailing your fund spending plan. Your spending plan should meet the following criteria:

Long-Term Investments: The spending plan should focus on long-term physical or digital infrastructure that benefits the club.
Capital Investments: Priority will be given to proposals that include capital investments. Equipment purchases that enhance the club’s training and operations are advised.
Promotion: Non-personalized physical or digital promotional materials may be considered.

Funds cannot be used for social events, merchandise, or allocated to coaches. Funding is strictly for the benefit of club members and committees.

Click here to download an example winning submission, authored by the University of Bath taekwondo club for the 2019 award.

The example submission may not match the current content requirements described on this page, but it is indicative of the style, the minimum level of detail and the level of presentation required of a successful submission.