ITA Cork Open Success!

GMAC took a small contingent of competitors to the Irish Taekwon-Do Association’s Cork Open over the weekend of 15th & 16th February.

The competition was attended by 620 competitors from Ireland, Scotland and Germany, including many World & European Champions.

The first day of the event was for competitors 14 years & up, with 5 of our competitors taking part on day 1.  The day got off to a winning start with Karys Taylor medalling in the Cadet’s Female Red Belt Patterns after four rounds taking Bronze.  Next up was Pattern for Kieran Cain who recently moved up to the black belt ranks.  He won through the first round comfortably, and in the second round lost 3-2 after very good pattern performance.  Good show for his first Black Belt competition.

The sparring divisions were up in the afternoon, with Kieran up first in <68kg division, and after three rounds narrowly missed out on a medal placing.  Iain O’Hare was up immediately after Kieran in the adult <70kg division, this division was a round robin, after a well fought first round Iain went on the next bout with previous World Championships winner Luke Woods.  Iain taking Sliver after a mammoth battle by both competitors.

Megan Brown was up in the -60kg division with very experienced competitors and World Medalists.  Both bouts went very well, with her overcoming her first opponent convincingly, and in the final she was against a much taller opponent.  Megan showed great skill and pushed herself very hard in the final with the closely fought match going the way of the Irish competitor.  Well earned bronze for Megan.

Kieran took Bronze in the Junior Male Black Belt Special Technique as well as Bronze in the Power test, after more than 10 rounds of breaking.  Megan also took Bronze in the Female Black Belt Power Test event.

Day one of the championships completed, the team took the opportunity to relax in the Hotel for the evening as we had another day of competition ahead of us as well as journey home afterwards.

Jay Jervis was our sole junior competitor on the Sunday, competing in the 11-13 years Male Red Belt Pattern event in the morning.  Jay’s hard work on his pattern of late was seen on the mat, but was narrowly pushed out to the Irish competitor.  Good experience for him however.  In the sparring division Jay went out strong in the first match against a taller opponent, comfortably advancing to the next round, The second and third bouts went the same way, resulting in Jay picking up Bronze in the category.

A very successful weekend with the team taking away 1 Silver, and 6 Bronze medals from 5 competitors.  A full picture galley can be found on our Facebook page or by clicking here.