Tallaght’s haul helps Ireland go fourth in WAKO Europeans

TALLAGHT Martial Arts fielded 12 competitors in the WAKO European Cadet and Junior Champ-ionships in Macedonia and helped Ireland to fourth place on the medal table out of 37 countries as they accounted for two gold and five bronze medals

Jodie Browne captured the Older Cadets (13-15 Years) -60kg Points Fight-ing title beating Petra Gregoric from Slovenia, Bethanie Mai of Great Britain, and finally Asia Sanita from Italy in this division.

In her first two fights, Browne carded maximum-score victories to secure her place in the final.

There she fought her heart out over the two rounds with another fine display of kicking and punching to win the bout 11-9 and, with it, the title.

Conor McGlinchey followed suit in the Junior (16-18 years) -79 kg Points Fighting section, chalking up maximum-point triumphs over Hakan Bekiroglu from Turkey and James Knapton from Great Britain.

Up against Zoltan Balint from Hungary in a thrilling final that ebbed and flowed, McGlinchey hit a crucial score in the dying seconds to square the contest and force one extra minute.

During that period he scored a marvellous head kick to win the final 30-28.

Adam Smith, fighting in the Junior -74kg Points Fighting division, picked up bronze after reaching the semi-finals, where he was pipped 19-17 by Greek fighter, Prodromos Papaopoulos.

Prior to that he saw off Vilim Uremovic from Croatia and Attila Csonka from Hungary to make the last four.

Adam’s twin brother Luke Smith made the last eight of the Junior -57kg Points Fighting after beat-ing Alexander Baumann from Austria only to lose out to Callum Hollingshead from Great Britain.

A 12-2 victory over Italy’s Asia Otranto saw Eadaoin McCrave pro-gress to the semi-finals of the Older Cadets -65kg Points Fighting class where she lost out to Anesa Trle from Austria.

She took the same colour in the Light Contact field after she put in winning performances against Martyna Czerepin from Poland and Barbara Kovacs from Hungary.

Yet she was denied further passage after losing to Sveva Scandurra from Italy in the semis.

Adam Condon brought home bronze after reaching the penultimate rounds of the -57kg Light Fighting division following wins over Kemal Kabilovic from Slovenia and Great Britain’s William Taylor.

Yet his journey stopped there as he lost out to Russian Rafael Aisov who continued on to win the European title.

Leá Farrell picked up bronze in the -50kg Points Fighting section thanks to wins over Stephanie Kellick from Great Britain and Nikolett Breznyik from Hungary.

And had it not been for an extra-time loss to Carol Scacchi from Italy, she would have been higher up the podium.

Also competing in this tough division was Rebecca Kelch who saw a win over Paulina Turulska from Poland followed by a narrow defeat at the hands of eventual champion Mari-etta Galanomati of Greece.

Troy Gannon’s win over Norway’s Magnus Lovik saw him into the last eight of the highly contested – 63kg division where he lost out to Lajos Fesu from Hungary.

Gannon also fought in the Junior Light Contact -63kg class, but lost out on a split decision against Michel Jean Brandt from Germany.

Tola Adebisi reached the quarter finals in the Junior -55kg Points Fight-ing field after beating Zoe Meier from Switzerland, but she came undone against the eventual Euro-pean champ-ion, Boglarka Laurinzc from Hungary.

Naoise Colvin suffered a one-point loss to Grace Chandler from Great Britain in the Older Cadets -46kg Points Fighting field while Kate Cassidy made it as far as the last eight in her division after despatching Vanessza Murvani from Hungary.

And despite a really gritty performance in a thrilling clash with Nikolina Pozega, she lost out 19-17 to the Croatian.