2017 National Taekwondo Championships come to Tallaght this weekend
By Stephen Leonard
ONE OF the week’s big sporting events taking place in the local community will be the 2017 Irish National Taekwondo Championships in Tallaght Leisure Centre on Saturday.
Some 230 Olympic style sparring athletes will be battling it out in their respective divisions for national honours with local clubs South Dublin Taekwondo and Clondalkin Sport Taekwondo enjoying strong representation.
Indeed the former will field no less than 39 athletes while Clondalkin will be represented by six members.
“While the national title is not part of national team criteria, those winning titles in substantial advanced divisions will put themselves firmly on the radar of the ITU High Performance committee who will have a keen interest in developing up and coming prospects to compete in international ranking events” explained Robert Taaffe, South Dublin TKD Head Coach and HP Director of the Irish Taekwondo Union.
Having been invited to an international camp in Norway where he will train alongside Olympians, South Dublin’s Jack Woolley will not be in action at the Nationals.
Yet the club will still have a string of very strong title contenders in the likes of Adam Nugent, an upcoming potential national team athlete who is hoping to make an impact in his -59kg junior division, and Aoibhe Thornton who is aiming to retain her -49kg senior female title.
What’s more the club will also field three siblings in Liana, Jed and Kim Rena with the latter being a former national champion and now gearing up for her first junior outing in -44kg Advanced.
Jed Rena is another athlete who has already tasted national success and will be looking to retake the -33kg Cadet Advanced title.
“We also have a couple of new athletes from other martial arts backgrounds who hope to gain good experience on their new journey” explained Taaffe.
Clondalkin, meanwhile, will not be shy of serious title contenders with gold medallist in last year’s Nationals Jonas Elkhawad targeting the -61kg Novice title.
The club will also be fielding three medallists in last year’s Meath Open in Jack Callaghan (-41kg Novice), Joanna Pankiewicz (-26kg Peewee Novice) and Charlie Costello (-26kg Peewee Novice) while Anna Mulhall and Ben Rooney line out in their first competition.
The day will be split into two sessions. In the morning the peewee and children divisions will take centre stage while in the afternoon, cadets, juniors, seniors and veterans will utilise electronic body protectors and head guards in their matches.
