Tallaght MA flood National squad for World C’ships

TALLAGHT Martial Arts senior students turned in superb performances in the second round of Kickboxing Ireland Senior National Championship in Tallaght Leisure Centre. 

Gar Ryan put in a solid performance in the -79kg section beating Eric Mehlhorn from Elite fighter in the final to win the National title and secure a place on the Ireland squad that will contest the WAKO World Championship in Budapest in November. 

Stephen Jones took the -94kg Points Fighting title at the expense of Colm O’Shaughnessy  from  Cork while  Dave Heffernan, fighting in the Veteran Points Fighting and Light Contact +94kg, made it a double.

Joe Dolan took second place in the -84kg Veteran Points Fighting section with Ger Walsh third while Dave Gray won the -63kg Points Fighting honour.

After having won the opening round of the championship, Martin Bannon lost out to Michael Forrest from Bushido MA by just one point in the -94kg PF division meaning they will now have to fight off to decide the destination of the title.

David Harris was runner-up in -74kg Points Fight- ing section while Brosna O’ Donovan was pipped by just a point in extra time against -50kg PF opponent Trina Fitzpatrick from Spartan Martial Arts.

In the -55kg Final Shauna Bannon and Caradh O’Donovan from TMA went head to head with the former taking first place before also wining the -55kg Light Contact section.

Tola Adebisi beat Clare Brennan from Hurricane Martial Arts to force a fight off in the -60kg PF class in what was her debut at senior level.

Keri Browne raised the -65kg prize at the expense of Spartan’s Sophie Larkin after which Nicole Bannon beat Emma Flannery from White Tigers in Castlebar in -70kg Points Fighting before making it a double with the -70kg Light Contact title.

Meanwhile Black Panthers Kickboxing Club will have two members on the Ireland Senior squad for the World Championships after Trevor Redmond won the -74kg veteran division.

He was handed a walk-over in the second round of the National Champ-ionships in Tallaght last weekend after having won the first against Patrick Cullen earlier this year.

Redmond will now travel to Budapest with clubmate Martin Kenny in -60kg Full Contact division.