Healthy medal haul for Tallaght in Irish Open

TALLAGHT Martial Arts made their mark on the Irish Open International in Citywest last weekend, accounting for four gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.

Junior fighter Troy Gannon made the semi-finals of the Men’s Light Contact -63kg and narrowly lost out on a split decision while Adam Condon, another junior, stepped up to the Men’s Light Contact -57kg and made the decider where he was just pipped.

Martin Bannon, fighting in the Veteran +74kg section, reached the decider in which he scored a perfect reverse punch against his Canadian opponent in the dying seconds of extra time to clinch the Irish Open title.

Reaching the Women’s

-55kg Points Fighting Final, Caradh O’Donovan came up against Shannon Ryan of the UK, took an early lead and controlled the fight over the two rounds to emerge champion.

Naoise Colvin, fighting in -42kg Older Cadet’s Girls, made the final where she beat Grace Chandler from the UK.

Jodie Browne was on a mission to win her third Irish Open title at -65kg Older Cadet Girls Point Fighting and she managed that some amazing head kicks that saw her surmount the challenge of Germany’s Kiara Mager.

She also fought in the -60kg Junior Girls class and lost out by the smallest of margins in the semi final.

Nathan Kelly contesting the younger cadets -37 kg, reached the title fight where he lost out by a point registered in the dying seconds of overtime by his opponent Joshua Wolf from Hungary.

Kelly and Zara Jones reached the semi finals of the Young Cadet’s team event where thy lost out to the eventual winners from the UK.

Conor Mc Glinchey, fighting in the -79kg junior men class, put on an excellent display en route to the final in which he shipped a point in the closing ten seconds against George Christopoulos from Greece that cost him gold.

He also picked up bronze in the -74kg Junior Men section while Tola Adebbisi fighting in the -55kg Junior Girl’s, lost out in the semi finals against Ishana Moores from the UK.

Her clubmate Rebecca Kelch who put in remarkable performance demonstrating her superb kicking and punching abilities as she secured silver while Dylan McClelland, fighting in his first Irish Open in the Young Cadets -42kg section, was pipped in the final by Balint Nagy from Hungary.

It was a similar scenario for Sarah Cassidy in the Young Cadets -28kg while Oisin Purcell, fighting in his first Irish Open and only his second tournament in beginners Men -80kg section made the final where he came undone against Sandro Neumann from Germany.

Jonathan Touhey took silver in the Intermediate Men’s -80kg after a cracking title fight against Darren Worrall from Derry.