Scorpion Open medals for South Dublin competitors

By Stephen Leonard

A GROUP of up-and-coming development fighters from South Dublin Taekwondo travelled to Barnsley in England to contest the Scorpion Open Taekwondo Champion-ships.

The World Taekwondo Federation event was designated as a stepping stone to ranking event participation for students.

Three athletes from South Dublin lined out in the competition, including Adam Nugent in Junior -55kg, Aoibhe Thornton in Junior -49kg and Senior -53kg and Eoghan Gorman in Senior -68kg.

Both Nugent and Thorn-ton had a mixed day with the former exiting from the quarter finals, while Thornton captured silver and bronze in her respective divisions.

The highlight for the team was the excellent senior international debut performance of Gorman, 17, a new recruit to SDTKD Club who excelled in his competitive division seeing off opponents by using his height and range to secure multiple head kicks throughout the day and land a gold medal.

Club Coach Robert Taaffe exclaimed, ‘I’m delighted for Eoghan.

“It was his first senior international after joining the team and the exercise demonstrated what we needed to know and he has now put himself in strong contention to travel to a ranking event with the team in the near future” he added.