Winning streak for taekwondoka at European championships

THE Irish tae kwon do team returned from the ITF European championships in Maribor, Slovenia last weekend with an impressive haul of three gold, eight silver and 12 bronze medals.
Among the Irish team were several competitors from Quin and Shannon tae kwon do clubs under the guidance of Stephen Ryan and Adrian Byrne. Competing from Quin tae kwon do club were Stephen Ryan, Laura Cullen, Áine Cregan and Nicole Moriarty, while representing Shannon were Adrian Byrne (coach), Louise McCagh, David Lynch, Jamie Williams and Shakira Coonghe.
The squad arrived in Maribor on the Wednesday for weigh-in and final registration before the competition kicked on the Friday, running right through to the Sunday evening. The first to compete for the Clare contingent was Stephen Ryan, current world number two in the senior men’s IV – VI Dan pattern division. Stephen came away with a bronze medal after losing out in the semi-final to his fierce rival, Jarek Suska, current world number one and now 19 time European champion.
This was a great achievement for Stephen but mixed with frustration as he has yet to beat Jarek, having lost out to him in the final at the world championships last year in the same division. Stephen’s personal goal is to beat Jarek before either one of them retires.
Áine Cregan from Quin came home with a silver in the junior ladies’ team pattern event, which is a great result for Áine in her first European championships. She also narrowly missed out on a bronze in the individual special technique event, making it into the play-off for medal positions. Nicole Moriarty from Quin taek won do club also took home a silver medal as part of the junior ladies’ team and was very unlucky to lose in the quarter-finals of the individual junior girls’ pattern event.
Laura Cullen, assistant instructor in Quin tae kwon do club competed in the senior ladies’ individual and team patterns events. Laura looked very sharp in the individual event but lost out to Hungary. However, she made up for this with a great performance on the senior ladies’ team taking away a bronze medal along with Shakira Coonghe from Shannon. Jamie Williams from the Shannon club competed in individual sparring and patterns as well as team events in the same disciplines. Jamie put in great performances in all categories and was narrowly defeated in the individual sparring event but he won bronze in the junior II Dan pattern event. Jamie was also part of the junior boys’ team that took silver in the team pattern event, losing out to Germany in the final match.
David Lynch competed in individual patterns and put in a strong performance but just missed out on the medals. Louise McCagh made up for this disappointment though, as she came home with a haul of three medals. Competing in her first senior event at this level, she was up against much more experienced competitors in the 58kg sparring division. Louise saw off opposition from several of the top-ranked countries on her way to a final with world champion Ilona Dziala from Poland. Louise brought the fight to Ilona early on and despite taking a heavy knock at the end of the first round came back strong to bring the match down to the wire. Ilona came away victorious leaving Louise with the silver medal. Louise also took bronze in the senior ladies’ individual special technique event, a discipline where the competitor must fly through the air and kick a target. The competitor who hits the highest target with correct technique and protocol is deemed the winner.
Louise took a bronze medal along with fellow Shannon competitor, Shakira Coonghe, in the senior ladies’ team sparring event.
This success shows the level of progress being made by the region in developing the art of tae kwon do. The Clare instructors are very actively involved in the development of tae kwon do at national level and travel the world taking part in training courses and international championships on a regular basis.
Next up for the Clare competitors is the Irish tae kwon do Association Dublin Open in May. They will then begin pre-season preparations for the tae kwon do World Cup which will take place in Brighton, England in October.