TKDI were represented well at THREE tournaments last weekend with some dedicated students traveling to more than one event!
On Saturday 20th October Bishopstown TKD made the early morning journey to Gormanston, Co. Meath, and it proved a roaring success! 16 of their students traveled to compete in the INTA National Championships, earning 20 medals altogether.
Abbie, Brenda Fitzgerald, Zumyra, Zulyqa and Mr Conor Dorgan all earned Bronze in their Patterns. Syaheera and Sarah A. performed Dan Gun and Do San respectively, both coming close to a spot on the podium. Special congratulations must be given to Abbie, whose Bronze medal came at her very first tournament! Dania, Zulyqa, Zumyra and Mr Dorgan fought well and won Bronze in Sparring.
Our Silver medalists in Patterns include Ethan, Brenda, Syaireen and Mr Alex Walsh. Ethan also won silver in Sparring, as did Sarah F., Eyad, Sandra and Mr Walsh.
Finally, 3 students, Syaireen, Ms. Pia Mohd and Mr. Luke Keohane, managed to win their Sparring sections, bringing home a Gold medal each. Brilliant results all around. We are delighted with the performances of our students.
This tournament showcased a marked improvement in many. We will come back to training with lessons learned, and enter more competitions in the new year. Congratulations to all. Thank you to our coaches (Ms S. Walsh, Mr A. Walsh, Ms Z. Walsh and Mr P. Field) for their assistance on the day, as well as Ms. Haussmann and Mr Dorgan who were officials on what was a successful but long and tiring day. And finally, a HUGE thank you to all our parents who traveled in the early hours to make this competition and kept everyone in such high spirits for the day!
On the same day 2 members of the NUI Galway Tae Kwon-Do Club: Agata Rzeznik and Nathan Deane-Huggins traveled to Cork to compete in the Redking Rumble 2018 Taekwon-Do Tournament.
The two competitors managed to walk away with 3 medals between them with Agata earning bronze in patterns and silver in sparring in the senior female colour belt division and Nathan winning bronze in senior male colour belt sparring. Redking was also attended by Emma O'Connell from Crosshaven Tae Kwon-Do Club, who had a fantastic day earning gold in both patterns and sparring!
On Sunday 21st of October, 9 members of the NUI Galway Taekwondo Club: Cathal Ó Murchú, Aaron Croke, Tomás Lane, Agata Rzeznik, Nathan Deane-Huggins, Lorcán McCarthy, Stephen Hughes, Christopher O’Brien and Luke Thompson, took part in the Connacht Tae Kwon-Do Championships and had a very successful day bringing back 12 medals with not a single person leaving empty handed! Since it was a very first competition for all our white belts we are most proud of their results!
The male competitors got on very well from the start in patterns with Aaron Croke earning a silver in green belt to black tag division and Nathan Deane-Huggins a deserved gold. The white belt to green tag division went even better with 3 medals going to NUIG students. Christopher O’Brien got a bronze, Stephen Hughes got a silver and Lorcan McCarthy winning a gold medal.
The senior male competitors also succeeded in sparring in the green belt to black tag division with Tomás Lane getting bronze, Nathan Deane-Huggins getting silver and Cathal ÓMurchú winning gold. The white belt to green tag senior male division went very well for both our light and heavy weight competitors with Luke Thompson getting joint third place with Stephen Hughes and Lorcán McCarthy getting a silver and Christopher O’Brien winning a gold medal. Agata Rzeznik also managed to grab a silver medal in senior female colour belt sparring, unfortunately missing out on gold by only a one point.
Congrats to all our competitors! That was a great start of the season!
*Thanks to the contributors of the above photos, including Mr Mark Pollock of the INTA