South Dublin Taekwondo kick off the year in Belgium

SOUTH Dublin Taekwondo were back to competitive action for their first time this year where a group of their up & coming future stars travelled alongside some more experienced team to the ‘Keumgang Open’ in Brussels, Belgium.

The event, one of the most well-known non-ranking events in Europe was hosted over 16 rings with 1000 athletes from 25 countries.

With team growth and development the main goal, any medals were seen as a bonus.

As the new year arrived, so did new age categories for many in the team who had the early opportunity to test the new age category in preparation for the year ahead.

Medal winners include; Dora Kruslin & Claire White who returned home with bronze medals in their – 57kg Senior & -55kg Junior divisions.

A silver was won by Nicholas Buffini-Taaffe in his -33kg Children’s division.

Also clinching a silver was Elena Lella who fought to the final only to meet her team mate Victoria Laurel who won gold in their -24kg Child division.

One of the standout performers of the day was Evelina Paulauskiene who fought her way to gold through a very competitive -59kg junior division finishing most of her 6 rounds throughout the day early by 12 point gap.

Finishing outside the medals Railoj Lewis Suba & Sorena Shirvani carded a brace of wins before settling for 5th, and strong wins were scored by Darius Turcitu & Anthony Lella.

Leading the coaching throughout the day was Ireland Team athlete Leroy Nsilu Dilandu assisted by Cyrus Shirvani & Robert Taaffe.