Newlands aim to compete in World Cup

Newlands aim to compete in World Cup

NEWLANDS Taekwon-Do could well still have domestic and international competition to look forward to later this year.

The club was gearing up to field six of their top members in the ITF European Championships in Slovakia last week, but that tournament suffered the fate of so many that have fallen foul of the global Coronavirus pandemic.

Newlands TWD Kamil Falowski the new European Champion from Newlands Taekwon Do compressor

Kamil Falowski did not get the chance to defend his European title

That followed the cancellation of a Dublin competition to which Newlands were due to play host in March.

Yet, despite these setbacks, Newlands are hopeful that they will still get the chance to attend the World Cup in Slovenia for the first time in October.

A major international club competition, it will hopefully see Newlands field some 20-30 competitors in what would set them up nicely for the National Championships in Limerick the following month.

Among those who were due to travel to Slovakia for the Europeans was Newlands’ defending champion Kamil Falowski.

He went top of the podium in Sarajevo back in November following a great campaign that saw him beat Hungarian, English, Norwegian and Belarussian opposition en route to the -75kg decider.

On the other side of the draw, his clubmate Bartosz Bien secured his place in the same final after seeing off competitors from Italy, Belarus, England and Russia.

In the end it was Falowski who won out after a tough title match, subsequently becoming Newlands’ first European champion.

It was brilliant finish to a year in which Falowski and clubmate Laura Bien (-55kg) both won bronze along with the junior boys team at the World Championships in Germany back in May.

Yet 2020 has thrown up challenges of a whole new nature for the club with coach Carl Smullen telling The Echo, “We’re just encouraging our students to train and stay active. It’s very important they build that self motivation at this time.

“If we could get back to even non-contact training, where we work on the traditional side of things like patterns, it would be great” he added.

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