Tallaght MA members lead the way for Ireland
TALLAGHT Marital Arts played a central role in helping the Irish Kickboxing team finish fourth on the medal table at the WAKO World Junior Kickboxing Championship in Jeslo, Italy.
Indeed, Kickboxing Ireland competitors won 12 gold, 11 silver and 29 bronze medals on the global stage with Tallaght accounting for two gold medals, three silver and 10 bronze across numerous different styles of kickboxing such as points fighting, light contact, kick light, full contact and musical forms.
Jodie Browne was in top form in the Older Cadets (13-15 years) -65kg Points Fighting section in which she beat Italian, Liechtenstein and Australian opposition by maximum scores (10 clear points) on her way to the final against Asia Georgiou from Great Britain.
This proved an epic battle from start to finish with the British fighter opening up a four-point lead by the end of the first round only to see Browne fight back for and 8-7 victory.
She also competed in the Light Contact -65kg section, reaching the last four where she narrowly lost on a split 2-1 decision against Anna Ysewyn of Germany, picking up a bronze.
Conor McGlinchey, fighting in the Junior Men’s -79kg Points Fighting section, beat opponents from Norway, Slovenia and Greece to set up a decider against Szasz Kristof from Hungary.
The Tallaght competetior took control of the bout from the onset and increased his lead over the rounds with some amazing display of kicking skills to outpoint his Hungarian rival by 22-14 and win the WAKO World title.
Adam Condon a seasonal fighter in points fighting and light contact made his debut, fighting Junior -54kg Full Contact.
Victories over competitors from Kazakh-stan and Algeria paved the way for a world title bout against Pavlov Yevgenly from Kazakhstan to whom he lost on a split decision.
Nathan Kelly took bronze in the Older Cadets -42kg division after reaching the last four where he was undone by Amin Guliyev from Azerbaijan.
Cialam Dowdall served up a great run to the semi finals of the Older Cadets -57kg Points Fighting section, beating Kieran Unsworth of Great Britain along the way.
But his adventure ended when he emerged on the wrong side of a split decision in his clash with Timotej Zavel.
Zara Jones fighting in the Older Cadets -42kg Points fighting and light contact, took bronze in the latter after making the penultimate rounds against Olga Seval Koch of Russia.
And it was the same colour for her in points fighting following a thrilling semi final clash against Hungary’s Viven Viczian who crucially registered a point in the dying seconds to win 8-7.
In the Older Cadets -46kg Naoise Colvin overcame her Russian and Hungarian opponents on her way to third place after being pipped by Italy’s Chiara Teodorain.
Aoife Bailey, fighting in the Older Cadet -50kg Points Fighting, made the last four where she was narrowly beaten by another Italian, Francesca Ceci.
Bailey, who was also competing in the Musical forms hard style, picked up a bronze medal.
Leá Farrell fighting in both Junior Light Contact and Points Fighting -50kg, worked her way to the semi finals where she was eventually despatched by Kristina Nikolova from Bulgaria, but can be very proud of this bronze.
Eadaoin McCrave fighting in the Junior -65kg Points Fighting, Light Contact and Kick light, came away with a bronze medal, while Emmet Bailey turned in a first-rate performance in the Under 8 Years Musical Forms hard style to win silver.
Likewise in the Under 10 Years Musical forms hard style, Max Lennon took silver and his brother Josh finished fourth.
“The fighters that didn’t reach the podium this year, Troy Gannon, Sarah Cassidy, Cillian McArdle, Dylan McClelland and Anna White can also hold their heads high as they were perfect ambassadors for their country,” added Tallaght MA Coach Martin Bannon.
