By Nicola Corless
CLARE competitors, representing Ireland, brought home a range of medals from last weekend’s European Taekwon-Do Championships in Italy.
The Irish squad of 32 competitors, six coaches and two managers, finished in third place overall out of 30 countries, with six gold, four silver and five bronze medals. Eight of the team that travelled to Riccione were from Clare.
Quin Taekwon-Do Club’s Stephen Ryan (competitor and coach), Nicole Moriarty and Joanne Potter and Shannon Taekwon-Do Club’s Adrian Byrne (coach), Skye Slattery, Jamie Williams and Dave Lynch along with Jamie Rigney from Ballyea-Inagh Taekwon-Do Club all travelled.
The Clare contingent achieved massive success in the event, with Joanne Potter taking a silver medal in individual -55kg sparring, beating competitors from Norway, Hungary, Poland and Germany. She showed great skill and tactical awareness along the way to the final, where she faced off against fellow Irish competitor and current world champion, Ellen Ince, from Killester Taekwon-Do Club.
The ladies fought out a very close and exciting final, with the gold on this occasion going to Ellen and silver to Joanne, a massive achievement for the very talented 14-year-old.
Nicole Moriarty from the Quin club won a bronze medal in individual patterns, showing precision and class in each round to beat competitors from Scotland, Poland, Romania and Italy before narrowly losing out to a Norwegian competitor in the semi-final, who went on to take the gold.
Both Nicole and Joanne, along with Skye Slattery, also took home a bronze medal in the junior ladies team in the team pattern event, continuing the success from last year’s world championships in Spain, where they took gold in the same category.
Skye also competed in the individual -50kg sparring event. While she did not get a medal on this occasion, she showed great progress for the future.
Jamie Williams from the Shannon club continued his success from last year’s European competition, taking home the silver medal for the second year running in the senior men’s -57kg sparring category. Jamie showed excellent skill and composure to beat very strong opponents from Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Italy, before narrowly losing to Tiziano Trimboli in the final.
Jamie was also part of the senior male pattern team that included two other Clare competitors, Dave Lynch and Jamie Rigney. Unfortunately, the Irish team lost to the eventual winners from Norway, after bringing them to an extra round when the decision was tied after round one.
Jamie Rigney also competed in the power-breaking event where he finished just outside the medals. He did not smash enough board on this occasion to get on the podium.
Quin’s Stephen Ryan took home the bronze medal in individual 4th–6th Dan patterns, beating the home favourite Massimo Persia in the first round before going on to beat England and Belgium, before narrowly losing to Poland in the semi-final. Stephen was also part of the senior male sparring team that beat Slovenia, Germany and Sweden to make the final a showdown with Poland.
Although the Irish team did not match up in terms of physical size to their Eastern European counterparts, they made up for it with skill and heart to bring the decision down to the final match, with the Irish lads narrowly beaten in the end.
According to Stephen, Clare athletes did very well despite a lack of financial support.
“We are always looking for a local company to support us. If you compare Taekwon-Do to other sports that Ireland competes in, we have an excellent record. We are ranked in the top countries and are competing against countries that are supported financially by their own government. In many cases, athletes who win medals at the European Championships would have received money for that in their own country, allowing them to live as full-time athletes. That is an amazing thing and it is something we would love here. We are competing against that. We rely on our own fundraising and getting sponsorship here,” he said.
Despite the lack of funding, the team was delighted with its performance.
“We are extremely happy with how the championships went. We had the world championships last year and the Irish team finished second there, so the expectation was quite high going into this competition, even though we lost some of our more experienced competitors. Louise McCagh from Shannon, for example, has had to take a break as she is finishing her degree in UL. She is in her final year, so we were missing her for this campaign,” Stephen explained.
“When you are missing people of that calibre, it is fantastic to see the younger ones, like Joanne and Nicole, carrying on that success. A lot of that is inspired by the people who have gone before them,” he added.
Stephen also highlighted the commitment and training involved in winning medals at European level.
“The hard work they put in is amazing. It is seven days a week and sometimes twice a day. In the run up to this, we have had early sessions before they went to school and then other ones after school. There is a lot of work that has gone on in the background that people don’t see. It is voluntary and there is no funding, so this is done purely for the love of the sport,” he said.
“Clare is so well represented on the team and a lot of it is down to myself and another coach, Adrian Byrne, who have been competing for such a long time. As we are towards the later stages of our own competitive careers, we have put a huge focus on up-and-coming competitors.
“Because of that, I think there will be an even greater percentage of the national team made up of people from Clare in the future,” Stephen concluded.
The next outing for the team is the European Cup, which takes place in October in Budapest, before they set their sights on the World Championships next May in Venice, followed by the European Championships in Glasgow.
The Irish Taekwon-Do Association is also in the process of preparing a bid to bring the European Championships in 2017 to the University Sports Arena in Limerick. The organisation presented a preliminary bid at the European Congress in Italy and the official vote will take place at next year’s congress in Glasgow.