Tallaght MA fighters set to flood National Junior squad
By Stephen Leonard
TALLAGHT Martial Arts juniors were out in force for last Sunday’s Kickboxing Ireland National Championship in Citywest and earned 19 places on the National squad that will contest the WAKO Junior World Championship in Dublin this August.
Indeed the club recorded 10 first place finishes, nine silvers and two bronze.
Conor McGlinchey, stepping up to junior level (16-18 Years) and moving up two weights to -74kg Points Fighting section, won all his fights by the maximum ten-point score.
Likewise Luke Smith, moving up from Older Cadets (12-15 years) to Junior level where he contested the very tough -57kg Points Fighting divisions, also made a massive impression with his amazing speed and footwork to reach the top spot on the podium.
He finished runner-up in the Light Contact -57kg section to guarantee his place on the light contact team.
Tola Adebsi, also moving up to the Junior -55kg Points Fighting section, put in a solid performance to win the national title while Nicole Bannon, in her final year at junior level, retained her national titles at -65kg Points Fighting and Light Contact.
In the older Cadets -60kg Points Fighting Jodi Browne reached the final where she beat her clubmate Eadaoin McCrave.
McCrave also took third place in hard style weapons to ensured three spots on the national team.
Leá Farrell, at -50kg Points Fighting, put in a great performance, to overcome her clubmate Rebecca Kelch in the final while Troy Gannon won out in the Older Cadets -57kg Points Fighting and took second in Light Contact.
Lauren O’Keeffe, competing in her first National Championship fight at +47kg Younger Cadets (10-12 years) took the national title.
Nathan Kelly followed suit when he moved up a weight to -32kg Younger Cadet before Zara Jones made the -37kg Younger Cadet Points Fighting decider where she lost out by one point in the dying seconds.
Kellie Morgan turned in a great performance to reach the -65kg Older Cadet Points Fighting title match where she was undone and it was a similar story for Adam Smith in Junior -84kg Points Fighting.
Danielle Walsh, competing in her first National Championship at -32kg Younger Cadets, finished third while Adam Condon, who picked up an injury in the Points Fighter Cup in Milan the previous week, was unlucky not to progress beyond the quarter finals in -57kg Junior Points Fighting.
Nathan Clarke made the last eight of the Under 8 years Points Fighting section.
Elsewhere Dean Barry competed in the Amerikick International Tournament in Philadelphia the week before and topped the -79kg Points Fighting class.
He lost out by one point in the semi final of the Grand Champion event and has been offered the chance to return in July to compete in the WAKO North American Open.
