On Friday the 12th of November UCD Taekwon-do club made the trip to Co. Cork for the annual Irish International Championships, the largest competition on the Irish Taekwon-do calendar.

 Having done exceptionally well the previous year the club were out to maintain their hold on the medal tables and succeeded.

On Saturday the twelfth Mr. Fearghal O’ hAodha took to the ring in the black belt category. After two hard fought rounds Mr O’ hAodha was beaten in the semi finals to exit the competition with a bronze medal after a two year absence from the competition circuit, a huge achievement.

On Sunday the colour belt competition took place allowing the UCD students to show their stuff. First up was the patterns competition where competitors perform a set sequence of technical movements. At white belt to yellow stripe level beginner Terry Hynes earned a well deserved bronze medal while in the Yellow to blue belt category Ciara Fitzpatrick (Yellow belt) and Sicelo Llyod Dube (Green tag) earned gold medals. At senior level in the blue to black tag category blue belt Niall Nelligan earned a silver medal after a close fought final.

After patterns came sparring and the UCD competitors were out to win. In the men’s White to green tag category there were no less than three medals earned. Sicelo Llyod Dube earned his second medal of the day with a silver in the <70kg category as did Terry Hynes with another bronze in the >80kg section. Meanwhile Daniel Gillan had a fantastic performance in the <80kg section where he earned a silver medal in his debut competition. In the men’s senior section performances from captain Ian Woods (Red Tag) and Gavin Nugent (Black tag) yielded two sparring gold medals seeing the guys named as Irish Champions. Paul Malone (Red tag) also fighting in his debut competition was unlucky on the day as was Cormac Shea (Yellow belt). 

The girls were not to be left out either! In the women’s white to green tag sparring section Ciara Fitzpatrick won her second medal of the day, a silver in the <58kg category after three tough matches. In the <64kg category Captain Rebecca Anderson (green tag) took a silver medal having lost her final by a point while Laura Doherty (White belt) took bronze in the same section in her first competition. In the >64kg category Esmeralda Herrero (White belt) also took a bronze. At senior level Audrey De Faoite (black tag) took a hard earned bronze medal in the <58kg.

The competition was a great success with UCD TKD taking a total of 15 medals home to Dublin. Our next big event is this coming Monday (the 22nd) when the annual colours competition against Trinity college will be fought in hall B of the sports centre from 8pm until 10pm. Spectators are welcome to cheer on the fighters.