South Dublin pair top Polish Open podium
SOUTH Dublin Taekwondo’s Jack Wooley and Lauren Farrell both went top of the podium in their respective divisions at the 2018 Polish Open in Warsaw.
Some 1250 individual competitors arrived in the Polish capital to compete for honours at Cadet, Junior and Senior degree, and, with divisions of up to 50 Olympic taekwondo athletes, it is one of the biggest events in the world.
Lining out in his -58kg Senior division, Woolley was awarded a bye due to his Number One seeding, and later saw off challenges from opponents from Spain, French and finally Belarus in the decider.
It marked his second Polish Open, six years after securing his first substan-tial international gold when fighting at cadet level.
Farrell, meanwhile, made her junior debut in fine style, taking to the mats on five occasions and overcoming strong opposition from Hungary, Poland and Austria before dispatching her Greek opponent in the -59kg Junior division final.
That superb tournament run brought with it her first Junior gold at a world ranking tournament and the additional honour of being the Irish fighter with the most consecutive wins at one ranking event.
The South Dublin group in attendance with Head Coach Robert Taaffe also saw a return to the competitive stage from injury for David Phelan.
He won his opening match against Spain before bowing out to another Spaniard on the golden point and consequently just falling short of the podium.
Other SDTKD International fight team members in action included Leroy Dilandu, Ryan Doyle and Emma Cahill who gained valuable experience on this stage.
Coach Robert Taaffe and Woolley have travelled on to Taiwan where the latter competes in the Grand Prix Series 3 on Friday before returning home to make final preparations for the opening of SDTKD’s new training centre in Tallaght at the start of October.
TAGS Sport
