Double podium for Doyle

South Dublin Taekwondo have kicked off their 2025 competitive calendar with Senior outings in both Canada and Slovenia in February.

January, which is the only idle month in the WT calendar, was a month of recovery, recuperation and preparation for SDTKD’s international fighters.

A double header in Montreal, Canada at the Canada open G-2 [Grade 2, double ranking points] event followed by the Slovenia Open G-1 in Ljubljana.

SDTKD’s sole senior competitor in Canada secured an excellent podium at one of the most competitive events on the World Calendar.

A bronze was achieved in Ryan Doyle’s 74kg senior male category.

The Firhouse native entered the Canadian event seeded 3 which led to a bye in the round of 32.

Two consecutive wins versus Canada’s Benjamin Tait and US National Champion Daniel Alexander saw Doyle into the medals and a semifinal encounter with seed 2 Victor Rodriguez of USA.

The semifinal ended 2-1 in rounds in favour of USA with Doyle narrowly missing out on his first G 2 final by milliseconds as his foot was judged to cross the boundary line in the final moments as he was winning a deciding round.

After a brief rest Doyle proceeded to Slovenia to keep up the momentum. Doyle secured a further podium finish and a world ranking bronze medal.

After a bye in the round of 32 once again due to seeding Doyle secured a brace of strong wins versus Czechia’s Tomas Sittek and Montenegro’s Ognjen Komatina who just defeated the No 1 seed.

Once again a close deciding semi-final saw Doyles fate as he ended in 2-1 defeat to Belgian Youth Olympic Silver Medallist Badr Achab, the final deciding round remaining 0-0 until the dying seconds when a flurry from both fighters ended with a single score from the Belgian.

Ryan was joined by some team mates for the events, in Canada Cadet Nichoas Buffini-Taaffe had a quarter final finish 5th place after seeing off 2024 US National Champion in his round of 16.

In Slovenia a 5th for Cadet Yeva Kovalachuk after beating Polish Opposition, and a good open round win for Senior Erfan Moradi before narrow defeat to seed 2 from Ukraine secured some valuable senior ranking points.

The early success in 2025 for Doyle sets him up well for possible participation at the prestigeous World Championships later this year in China and the 2025 Universiade in Germany.