Taekwondo World Champions
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ANTON HATTINGH - World Champion 1992
Anton Hattingh was born in Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa. He started his Martial Arts career at the age of 6 when his grandfather enrolled him at a local Judo club.
A year later his parents moved to the city of Durban on the Natal South Coast. There were no Judo clubs in this area and he switched to Karate when they found a club a few blocks away. This would become his passion. While playing rugby for his school and enjoying other athletic events such as track and field, he always made sure that Karate was #1 in his life.
He started to compete in tournaments and quickly became a well known name. He continued to climb through the ranks and more than once skipped a belt to go directly to the following rank and became a black belt at the age of 15.
Some of his achievements:
Numerous National All Styles Champion titles, the first being in 1975
Numerous times represented the Natal All Styles team, winning multiple gold and silver medals
Captain for the Transvaal Games, where 50% of the squad included his schools’ students
Represented Eastern Transvaal on the National platform
Appointed Ambassador by the World Traditional Taekwondo Union to South Africa
Internationally certified Chief Referee
Holds a 5th Degree Black Belt, earned under Grandmaster H.U. Lee, founder of the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) and Songham Taekwondo.
In 1989 Anton visited the United States for the first time due to a job related project at the time. He spent three months in Terre Haute, Indiana. While looking for a place to train while he was overseas, he connected with Master Phil Minton, who agreed to let him train with him. Master Minton is also a friend of famous Martial Artist and movie star, Chuck Norris. The two became very good friends and the connection continued long after Anton returned home in South Africa.
After he returned to South Africa, he decided to officially switch from Karate to Taekwondo and joined up with the USA Korean Karate Association (USA KKA), under the direction of Master Goy Jantzen. He became the Chief Judge and Chief Instructor for the Transvaal region.
In 1992 the world lifted sanctions against South Africa after the end of apartheid and for the first time in 30 years, South Africa was welcomed back into international sports. For the first time ever a National Taekwondo team was formed to represent their country at the World Championships in Mexico. As with all official South African National teams, the team was now an official Springbok team, a very rare status to enjoy and something very few people have the honor to become. Anton Hattingh became a member of the first Taekwondo Springbok team ever to compete internationally together with a few very experienced and popular Martial Arts friends, such as Master Richard West. Anton went on to win the World Championship title at the USA KKA in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Upon return to South Africa, he remained very busy in the Martial Arts world and opened multiple schools. Soon after, he was recruited by Grandmaster H.U. Lee to teach at the ATA World Headquarters as Chief Instructor in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1993 Anton accepted the role and moved to the USA. He continued to open more schools in Arkansas and other parts of the world, which were run by his instructor Black Belts. His student base grew to around 1,000 students across all his schools and he produced 5 more World Champions out of his schools.
Anton has since retired from the Martial Arts scene, but remains active by teaching self defence classes to Federal organizations, womens’ organizations and less privileged children.
