Tallaght’s Jack Woolley tops the podium in Sofia Open

AFTER a month away from competition, South Dublin Taekwondo’s Jack Woolley was evidently hungry to deliver as he secured gold in the Sofia Open- a World Ranking event with valuable Ranking points available to assist qualification for Tokyo 2020.

Heading into the draw as Number One Seed, he received a bye through to the second round and time to watch his opponent in their preliminary bout.

Germany’s Spiridon Nitsas earned the right to face the 18-year-old Tallaght athlete, but the match was stopped at the close of the second round after Woolley’s advantage exceeded 20 points.

There were more maximum score gaps to come as Woolley beat Italy’s  Antonio Temante 32-2 in the quarter final before seeing off Teodoro Ravone 31-1 once again with the referee stopping the match early.

This led to a final showdown with seed Number Three Dionysios Rapsomanikis of Greece in the final which proved to be a closer affair with Woolley winning out 19-12 and bringing home another world ranking gold medal to Tallaght.

‘It was a solid performance by Jack” said South Dublin Head Coach Robert Taaffe.

“In his first three matches he scored a blistering 84 points and was only hit once.

“The final brought a technical challenge that Jack managed very well and this will kick off the international circuit of events coming up throughout the next few months” he added.

The event in Bulgaria is the beginning of another attack on world ranking points that will see the South Dublin TWD star head to Eindhoven for the Dutch Open this coming weekend, the Belgian Open the week after, and Alicante, Spain the week after that.

He will be travelling to the highly-competitive Dutch Open with his clubmates Aoibhe Thornton, Shauna Bannon, Hojabr Kakakand, Jed Rena and Nathan Kelly.