2006 News
Galway/Oranmore December Grading
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2006 News
Galway/Oranmore December Grading
The Galway/Oranmore grading took place in Oranmore Community Centre. With almost forty participants, there was an incredibly high standard and three students were promoted to black stripe. They look forward now, to preparing for the black belt grading in April.
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A Team of Students from the Pilsung ITF Taekwon-Do Academy competed at the recent Best of the Best Open Martial Arts Tournament. In usual form the students did exceptionally well, in all Taekwon-Do patterns section the Pilsung Academy students dominated all top 3 places. The tournament was well attended with various different styles and systems competing on the day. Our competitors were in top form in the sparring sections also, taking a fair share of the medals and trophies home to Cabra. Congratulations to the junior girls team comprising of Maxine Hand, Neidine Coulahan and Sarah Lambe who fought well reaching the final, unfortunatley they lost out to an experienced points sparring kick-boxing team from the North East of the Country.
Competitors results;Maxine Hand - Gold (Black Belt Patterns), Silver (Black Belt sparring), Silver (Team Sparring)
Neidine Coulahan - Silver (Green to Red belt patterns), Silver (Team Sparring)
Rachel Murphy - Gold (Green to Red belt patterns)
Sarah Lambe - Bronze (Green to Red belt patterns), Silver (Team Sparring)
Lauren Bradshaw - Gold (white to Green belt patterns) Gold (Sparring)
Dara Strutt - Bronze (White to Green belt patterns) Silver (Sparring)
David Malone - Bronze (White to Green Belt Patterns)
Mark Rooney - 4th (White belt Patterns under 9's)
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In August, Mrs Sandra Doyle invited Mr Fitzgibbon to conduct a sparring workshop for her students in Loughrea. Over the course of two hours, Mr Fitzgibbon went through a series of approximately eighteen drills covering everything from separate hand/foot techniques to combination techniques.
Mrs. Dalton recently travelled to Dublin to give two grading examinations for UCD Taekwon-Do Club and IUTF Dublin. While in UCD she conducted a workshop for the university students. The event was well attended by 35 members of the school. It centred on correct performance of tul, focusing on sine wave, correct chambering and overall performance. There was also a section on kicking drills which focused on accuracy and application. Mrs. Dalton commented on the good work being done by head instructor, Ms. Blaithin Lynch. This was demonstrated by the excellent performance of the UCD members at the recent International Irish Championships.
The IUTF travelled to Spain for the 2006 Kickboxing World Championships and as usual came home with a glut of medals. The trip lasted a total of 10 days in the costal resort of Benidorm. In the junior continuous sparring section young Gabby Naughton was the star as she won gold in the final of -25kg section. Her sister Jessica also won a bronze medal. The pair hail from the Newcastle West TKD club under the auspices of Mr. Riordan. Eoghan Doyle from Galway also won a bronze medal in patterns. The standard in the children sections was exceptional with England, Canada and Germany leading the way.
In the adult sections Mr. Sean Keane was on fire in the -90kg section. He won four bouts on the way to the final where he fought a German opponent. This bout was considered by most to be the best of the finals with both fighters setting a relentless pace. Mr. Keane won a close first round while his opponent won the second. In the end the Corkman had to settle for silver, thus adding to his previous bronze (Italy, 2002) and gold (Ireland (2003) in WKA world championships. 2006 has been a great year for Mr. Keane. He already successfully represented ITF Team Europe in Lagos, Nigeria and in Cork. He won the Celtic Team Cup and the International Irish Championships. He was also crowned ITF European champion in the Hyperweight section. Roll on 2007.
Ms. Aoife Foley continued her good form from the ITF European Championships gold medal win by obtaining a bronze in the -65kg section. Ms. Foley was suffering the flu but only lost narrowlingly in the semi final due to her unbelievable mental strength and heart. Ms. Claire O’ Sullivan won a bronze medal in the Korean Forms and lost a close decision in the quarter finals. She won two bouts while battling with a serious back injury which she obtained a few weeks before. She will be one of the key IUTF medal hopes in next year’s WKA and ITF world championships.
This year was the first time that Mrs. Dalton was acting as WKA Vice President (in charge of Light Contact) and she said that “the overall standard of the light contact division was exceptional this year. Any members who achieved a medal deserve a lot of credit. I looks like next years World Championships will be held in Germany, which will be great for the IUTF due to our strong connections to WKA Germany. WKA Ireland will now be running all the sections available for this event, including the semi-contact. The trials will be held in UCD on April 1st. More details will follow soon.”
This year’s International Irish Championships was organised by the Irish United Taekwon-Do Federation (IUTF) and it proved to be Ireland’s largest Taekwon-Do competition ever with over 700 entrants. The event has become one of the premier annual competitions on the European calendar which a huge foreign contingent now regularly attending each year. The 2006 International Irish Championships was honoured to have Master Nestor Galarrara in attendance as well as Master Wolf, Master Harry, Master Hogan (and their students) and numerous international guests and friends from around Europe. All of the Masters were of tremendous help to the event and they worked tirelessly throughout. The following countries were in attendance: Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Argentina. It was the first time that competitors entered from Spain and Argentina. The event was supported by long time friends such as Mr. Toni Martella (NAG), Ms. Barbera Siruit (ITF Belgium), Mr. Patrick McCarthy (IUTF England), Master Gayle/Master Ogbourne/Mr. Bradshaw (PUMA), Mr. Tony Sewell (GTI). The largest support in Ireland came from Great Southern Taekwon-Do (Mr. Buckley), Focus Taekwon-Do (Mr. Boltan) and East Coast Taekwon-Do (Mr. McCabe/Mr. Whelan).
The black belt sparring sections were full with top class competitors and this was personified by the -71kg section which had 25 competitors (19 from outside of Ireland!). According to referee Mr. Riordan “the standard in the -71kg black belt sparring was excellent. There were at least 8 entrants who will be serious contenders for a medal in next year’s world championships.” The section was won by Mr. Dave Pixton of PUMA (England) who beat last year’s champion Mr. Josh Atiya Alla also of PUMA in the final. Mr. Ariel Alemanno of Argentina came third. The men’s -54kg section ended as a 1, 2, 3 for the IUTF (with Mr. James Stack in first place) while Mr. Michael Belle of Master Wolf Academies won the -63kg sparring. Tim Kool of Holland (Mr. Kwant Dojang) was the only male to retain his title from last year winning in the -80kg section. The +80kg division was a repeat of the European Championships final between Mr. Sean Keane of Ireland (IUTF) and Mr. Richard Belle of England (Master Wolf Academies). The European Champion Mr. Keane won again on this occasion and third place went to Mr. Daniel Modarelli of Argentina. In the male black belt tul three medals went to Argentina (1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze), three to Ireland ( 1 silver, 2 bronze), two to England (1 gold, 1 bronze) and one gold to Spain. The male IV Dan section had 12 entrants with the final being won by Mr. Christian Oriolani (Spain). Silver went to Mr. Ariel Alemanno (Argentina).
In the ladies -52kg sparring Ms. Lucy Wolf of England won first place to add to her title from two years ago. Ms. Valesca Den Boer (ITF Belgium) beat Ms. Janice Connolly of Ireland in the -58kg final. The -64kg section had 13 competitors After some hard fought bouts there was an all English semi final between Ms. Stacey Weatherer and Ms. Emma Deakin (both of PUMA). The other semi final was an all Irish affair. This was a great battle between the current -58kg European Champion and current Junior World Champion from Korea, Ms. Claire O’ Sullivan (IUTF) and the current -64kg European champion Ms. Aoife Foley (IUTF). Unfortunately the bout ended prematurely due to a severe clash of heads which resulted in both competitors requiring stitches. Ms. Weatherer prevailed in the other bout making her the champion. Ms. Weatherer was also champion in 2005 and 2003. The +64kg section was an all Ireland final between Ms. Moira McElligott and Ms. Kathy Dunne in a repeat of last years final. In the end Ms. Dunne succeeded in winning her third title in this weight category. Ms. Annemarie Rooney of England won the ladies I and II Dan patterns while Ms. Janice Connolly of Pyong Hwa Taekwon Do, Ireland won the III and IV section.
The Celtic Team Cup was one of the highlights of the weekend. The ladies team event was again won by the very strong PUMA team which is reigning supreme in Europe at the moment. The IUTF (Ireland) team came second. The men’s event had seven international teams. The first semi final was between IUTF (Ireland) and PUMA (England). The experienced IUTF team succeeded in reaching the final where they met team Holland, who had won a close battle in the other semi against Master Wolf Academies. Team Ireland had huge support from the 2,500+ spectators in attendance. They defeated their Dutch opponents and thus retained the Cup from 2005.
The 3rd Intercontinental Cup followed the final of the Celtic Team Cup. Team Europe was particularly strong featuring the current European Hyperweight gold and silver medallists (Mr. Keane and Mr. Belle). The current European Middleweight champion (Mr. Quemby) and the current World silver medallist from Korea (Mr. Kool). The team was captained by Mr. Fitzgibbon from Ireland. This was the third instalment of this competition. The first was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the second was in Lagos, Nigeria. The Americas team had difficulty with the weight advantage of the European team who were backed by the partisan home crowd throughout. Mr. Quemby was particularly impressive in his bout. His opponent was unable to continue after a picture perfect Dollyo Chagi landed flush on the chin early in the bout. In the end the victory went to Team Europe, thus avenging last year’s loss in Argentina. Team Europe Coach, Mr. Don Dalton, VI, would like to thank Mr. Jan Kwant of Holland for helping with the overall coaching of the winning European Team. He said “I would like to thank all the competitors who attended this year’s event. It was truly historic due to the presence of Master Galarraga (Head of the ITF Umpire/Referee Committee). Master Galarraga has offered great advice on how to improve our competition and we will be endeavouring to implement many new ideas for next year. I would also like to thank all the officials who worked tirelessly over the weekend and especially the main organiser Mrs. Dalton. We now have a true family feeling to a serious international event and this makes the weekend even more special. As an organiser there is always room for improvement and we look foreword to continuously improving the event in the years ahead.”
The colour belt competition with 521 competitors was finished at 4.50pm, again demonstrating the efficiency of the International Irish Championships! Next years competition is scheduled for the middle of November. Contact Mr. Dalton at iutf@hotmail.com for details. The next Intercontinental Cup will be on March 6th in Accra, Ghana, which will also be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Ghanaian independence.
Black Belt Matsogi:
Male -54kg:
1.. James Stack (Ireland)
2.. Eoin O’ Muinneachain (Ireland)
3.. Tomas Crotty (Ireland)
Male -63kg:
1.. Michael Belle (England)
2.. Winojj Ramsoebagh (Holland)
3.. Aristides Palopoli (Argentina)
Male -71kg:
1.. Dave Pixton (England)
2.. Josh Atiya Alla (England)
3.. Ariel Alemanno (Argentina)
Male -80kg:
1.. Tim Kool (Holland)
2.. Kirk Stephens (England)
3.. David O’ Sullivan (Ireland)
Male +80kg:
1.. Sean Keane (Ireland)
2.. Richard Belle (England)
3.. Daniel Modarelli (Argentina)
Ladies -52kg
1.. Lucy Wolf (England)
2.. Nicole Jarvis (England)
3.. Mary Manion (Ireland)
Ladies -58kg
1.. Valesca Den Boer (Belgium)
2.. Janice Connolly (Ireland)
3.. Carla Dunne (England)
Ladies -64kg
1.. Stacey Weatherer (England)
2.. Emma Deakin (England)
3.. C. O’Sullivan/A. Foley (Ireland)
Ladies +64kg
1.. Kathy Dunne (Ireland)
2.. Moira McElligott (Ireland)
3.. Rebecca Dearlove (England)
TUL:
Male I Dan:
1.. Chris Quemby (England)
2.. Steffan Fusco (Ireland)
3.. Jamaine Hemmings (England)
Male II and III Dan:
1.. Ezequal Unzien (Argentina)
2.. Gerardo Foigelman (Argentina)
3.. Diarmuid McSweeney (Ireland)
Male IV Dan:
1.. Christian Oriolani (Spain)
2.. Ariel Alemanno (Argentina)
3.. Graham Connolly (Ireland)
Female I and II Dan
1.. Annmarie Rooney (England)
2.. Valesca Den Boer (Belgium)
3. Claire O’ Sullivan (Ireland)
Female III and IV Dan:
1.. Janice Connolly (Ireland)
2.. Rebecca Dearlove (England)
3.. Mary Mannion (Ireland)
The Irish United Taekwon-Do Federation (IUTF) had the honour of hosting the Head of the ITF Umpire Committee, Master Nestor Galarraga, VIII Dan, at the end of November in Cork City. Master Galarraga first conducted a special seminar on sparring, which was attended by well over 100 black belts. The Master Class covered some of the sparring aspects which have become the hall mark of the top Argentinean competitors which have graced the world stage over the last 20 years. He delighted and relaxed the participants with his friendly approach throughout. In attendance were many V and VI degrees and they were led by Master Iaasac Harry who demonstrated great speed and poise during the course. Master Galarraga remarked how it was a pleasure to see a Master still working hard during such an event and complemented Master Harry on his technique. Master Galarraga was aided by one of the Argentinean legends of the tournament circuit Mr. Ricardo Rieiro who won four World Championship medals, the pinnacle being in Malaysia, 1994, when he defeated ITF great Mr. Paul Germain on the way to gold in the -71kg category. To see Master Galarraga and Mr. Rieiro demonstrate the attack and counter attack was like watching a beautiful performance of the tango by two long time partners. The crowd showed their appreciation with a rapturous applause afterwards.
The following two days were dedicated purely to the ITF Umpire/Referee Course. This was held in the fantastic new University College Cork “Mardyke Arena” which will host next year’s International Irish Championships in November. The ITF certified course covered every aspect of the competition curriculum, ranging from referee to umpire to jury president. He relaxed the participants from the onset and they had the opportunity to pick the brains of one of the world’s most knowledgeable Masters with numerous probing questions. According to the IUTF President Mr. Don Dalton VI, “This was the 4th time that I have completed this course in the last two years and I still have learned as much this time as the first one in Argentina. Master Galarraga has a wealth of knowledge and we are honoured to have this chance to learn from him. We were left longing for more after the two days were over but we look foreword to seeing him again in our country next year.”
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Mr Dalton announced the selectees for next year's ITF world championships, to be held in England. The senior male team will be mr Shane Fitzgibbon, Mr Mark Philpott, Mr Sean Keane, Mr Colin O' Shaughnessy (USITF), Mr David O' Sullivan, with the last position to be decided with a fight-off in 2007. The ladies senior team will be ompsoed of Ms Cathy Dunne, Ms Moira McElligott, Ms Claire O' Sullivan, Ms Aoife Foley, with the final two positions to be decided by fight-off. Congatulations to all those selected.
This years Leinster Championships returned to Dublin and were hosted by Mr. Mackey in Cabra. Mrs. Dalton organised the rings on the day as Mr. Dalton had to travel to London with Master Maidana. The event had over 180 competitors and ran flawlessly throughout. This showed how such events can run on time in fact all competitors were on the way home by 3.15pm. ITF European Champions Mr. Sean Keane of Cork and Ms. Claire O´Sullivan of Kerry both won gold medals. Ms. O´Sullivan had an especially difficult sparring section and she eventually defeated Ms. Moira McElligott of UCD and Listowel in the final. 3rd place went to ITF European Champion (-64kg) Ms. Aoife Foley of Cork.
The second prelims of 2006 were held in Kanturk with 30 members taking the test. The next prelim exams will be held in March in UCD.
Master Jose Maidana travelled to Ireland in October for 15 days in order to conduct a series of workshops around the country. The trip was hosted by the Irish United Taekwon-Do Federation and it was the second time that the well respected Master has travelled to the country as guest of the IUTF. According to ITF Ireland President Don Dalton (VI) “we were so happy with last year’s trip by Master Maidana that many of our instructors wanted to host him this year. As a result we had doubled the amount of workshops (from 5 to 10) and we covered every area of the country. Over 500 students had the chance to train with one of the great men of Taekwon-Do. Master Maidana was an inspiration for us all, beautiful technique, fantastic method of instruction, vast knowledge and always motivating and friendly. The students and instructors were all delighted with the workshops and look foreword to his return in the near future.”
Master Maidana arrived on October 4th and on the 5th and 6th Travelled to two IUTF schools in Cork in order to see the system of instruction in the country. Thereafter he proceeded to teach the Irish workshops in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Wexford, Dublin, Athlone and Galway. This span of workshops allowed for easy attendance for all Irish students. On Sunday the 8th and on Monday the 9th of October Master Maidana conducted a special two day-16 hour session which was open only to IUTF instructors. He also travelled to London to teach the students of Mr. Patrick McCarthy (IUTF England/GB ITF). Mr. John Riordan hosted A Master Maidana Master Class in Limerick and later had this to say: “my students were very excited to have such a world class Master teaching at our school in Limerick. I can assure you that no one was disappointed; the only real problem was that we had too much to learn! It was just brilliant and we all look foreword to the next visit. The IUTF is the only organisation in Ireland that can run such an extensive range of courses through out the country and on a regular basis. This year alone we hosted the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the ITF with the ITF International Instructors Course with President Choi (220 in attendance). We had two weeks with Master Maidana. There will be a Master Class in November with Master Galarraga, VIII, and he will also conduct a two day ITF International Umpire/Referee Course. Mr. Patrick McCarthy will conduct five self defence seminars in January and Master Sahota will conduct some more Master Classes in February. Our members are getting brilliant opportunities and it just keeps getting better.”
If you are interested in any of our future events including the International Irish Championships please contact the IUTF at iutf@hotmail.com.
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The UCD Sparathon 06 took place in the Student Union Centre in Belfield on Wednesday the 8th of March 06. This year it was held in aid of St Vincent de Paul. Chairperson Mr. Greg Lechmar sumed up the event by saying the following:
"I have finally collected everyone's sponsorship money from our charity event! The grand total is an impressive €1,060.12.Thanks to everyone who collected and took part! A special thanks to Sarah Lewis for raising the most money this year, a whopping €135. Well done!!Also congratulations to Mr. Quinn for taking the day off work just so he could get the title for winning the most fights. Great work everyone, I hope you all enjoyed it!!"
This years Intervarsities were held in UCD on Sunday the 26th of March and it proved to be a well attended college competition with over 100 students in action. The host club brought home a total of 30 medals to UCD competitors with an incredible 14 first places! With nine Colleges / Institutes in attendence this proved to be an outstanding set of results. IUTF Colleges competing included, UCD, UCC, CIT, RCSI, Mary I, LIT, and ITT.
The "Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland" annual invitation tournament was held this year on Wednesday the 22nd of February in RCSI, just off Stephen's Green in Dublin. This competition is a great opportunity to ease some of the university students into the tournament circuit and it proves an excellent warm up for the Intervarsities. For the second year in a row, RCSI won the team event, with four wins and a draw, meaning once again the RCSI Cup stays in RCSI for another year. Congratulations to captain Dyveke Gleditsch, Sharon Tay, Pierce Lyons, Gan Yun Han and Cillian Gorman who made up the victorious RCSI team.
Mr. Dalton will again coach Team Europe for the upcoming Intercontinental Cup between Europe and Africa. The team will travel to Ghana on March 6th and the event will coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Ghanaian independence from Britain. While there Mr. Dalton will conduct a number of training shops in both Ghana and Togo.
The LIT Taekwon Do Club raised €400 for equipment for the Africa fund in April. The Club instructors, Ms. McAuliffe, Ms. O’ Brien and Ms. O’ Sullivan organised a quiz night and donated all the profits towards buying Taekwon-Do equipment which will be donated to help some of our African friends over the coming months. Mr. Dalton said “this selfless behaviour is typical of the three instructors who are an inspiration to all of us. I would like to thank them sincerely for this work. We have already passed on some equipment to Mr. Mykel Eneduwa who travelled to Ireland recently and we will bring more new pads and doboks to Ghana when we travel there early next year.”
The trials for WKA Ireland for the upcoming World Championships were held in the Cork Institute of Technology in May. This covered qualification for both the Light Contact sparring and “Korean Forms.” The event was supported by various associations such as the IUTF, Great Southern Taekwon-Do, Focus Martial Arts, East Coast Taekwon Do, Family Martial Arts, Taekwon-Do Ireland and others. There was a break through for the up and coming Mr. Leon Brydon of Athlone, who was in fine form in winning the -70kg section. Mr. Sean Keane Of Charleville was sparkling in the -90kg section. Mr. Keane is a former WKA World champion and will be looking to add a second world championship to his name in November.
The annual Friendship Tournament was held in Kanturk, County Cork in May. “This event has proven to be extreemely popular with both students and parents. It is excellent for building confidence and for giving the younger students some valuable experience” said Mr. Philpott. The standard was exceptional this year and seems to be improving each time. Many of the entrants won two or more medals which will give them a fantastic boost over the coming months.
The IUTF sent a group of aproximately 50 competitors to the West Cork Championships which were held in Bandon in May. The event was organised by Taekwon-Do Ireland which is a part of ITF Ireland. The standard of sparring was particularly high but the IUTF competitors did especially well winning gold medals throughout the day.
Gold medal winners included Danny o' Connell, Listowel TKD, Jessica Naugton, Newcastle West TKD, Jordan Dalton South West TKD (Tralee) and Coachford TKD.
The 1st annual Hwa-Rang cup proved to be a huge success with 120 competitors from Riordan's Taekwon-do Schools taking part, Mr O'Sullivan also had a small number of students attending from his Charleville club. The main goal of this event was to introduce new students to the tournament stage in a friendly low key atmosphere, also there were also many more seasoned competitors taking part. The tournament ran very smoothly and took just under 4 hours to complete. Special thanks to referees/judges and senior students who worked so hard to accomplish this.
The day began with individual patterns split by age and grade and progressed to team patterns. The overall standard of students patterns has improved greatly since the recent introduction of team patterns, it proved to be a tough task for the judges to decide on the winning teams. The day ended with sparring, numbers of competitors in each divisions were kept to a minimum to ensure fairness for all. Congratulations to all students who took part.
The Hwa-Rang cup for best overall competitor was presented to Gabbie Naughton of Newcastle West Taekwon-Do Club,
Friday May 12th saw the arrival of Professor Rick Clark to the Pilsung Taekwon-Do Academy (part of IUTF DUBLIN) in Cabra. Professor Clark who has a 7th degree in Chung Do Kwan Taekwon-Do and 8th degree in Okinowan Karate, and who was a student of one of the original Taekwon-Do pioneers Sung Duk Sun, led the seminar of over 40 people through the mysterious world of pressure points!
Professor Clark's vast knowledge of these elusive parts of the body impressed the students who came from all different styles and associations. Present were representatives from AIMAA, Irish School of Taekwon-Do, Focus Martial Arts, Irish Taekwon-Do Association, Waterford Martial Arts and a large consignment of IUTF students. It was great to see many different groups all training together under the one roof! Professor Clark's unique teaching style kept every body interested. Prof. Clark had the unusual capability of raising a smile on one face and causing an agonising wince on another as he demonstrated each technique on much bigger and stronger opponents. Unfortunately, we only had him teaching for 2 hours which ran up very fast indeed. The feed back was very positive from the group, so much so that they pressed him to return again soon to teach for a bit longer. In his very relaxed style Prof. Calrk stayed back to take photo's and talk with other instructors about his life's work and travels. All in all it was a very enjoyable seminar. For me personally I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time with Prof.Clark out side of the Do-Jang too, which I found to be a very humourous and educating time! Prof Clark has agreed to return to Dublin before christmas this year. ......- Jon Mackey (visit www.iutf-dublin for a full photo section of the event!)
The South East IUTF members did extremenly well under their instrcutor Mr .Mick Flaherty, IV at the recent East Coast Taekwon-do tournament, held in Bray. Their total silverware takings were: 45 trophies from 44 competitors.
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Patterns:
10 x 1st 9 x 2nd 6 x 3rd |
Sparring:
4 x 1st 7 x 2nd 9 x 3rd |
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Mr. Fitzgibbon Wins two Gold in England
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Master Nicholls presents Mr Fitzgibbon with Super Instructor Challenge Cup.
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Spoils of the day
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IUTF Competitor of the Year, Mr. Shane Fitzgibbon travelled to London to compete in the South East Opens. He returned home with a total of two gold and two bronze medals. IUTF England had a total of 20 competitors in action under the tutelage of Chief Instructor Mr. Patrick McCarthy 6th Dan. Afterwards Mr. Fitzgibbon thanked Mr. McCarthy for his kind hospitality throughout the weekend. The trip was partly funded by the IUTF
Mr. Shane Fitzgibbon and Mr. Sean Keane both gained their first caps for Team Europe in the 2nd Intercontinental Cup. The Cup was between African and Europe and was held in Lagos, Nigeria. Team Europe was again coached by ITF Ireland President Mr. Dalton. The final score was Europe winning with three wins and two draws. Both Mr. Fitzgibbon and Mr. Keane won their bouts. Mr. Keane had a fantastic match against Ghana’s Mr. Mohammed Mehedi which demonstrated the excitement and drama of top class ITF sparring. Other team members included Mr. Nick Panteli, Mr. Lee Hollingsworth and Mr. Bashir Farkuri. Mr. Dalton would like to thank all five competitors for their support and excellent performances. The next Intercontinental Cup will be held in Irelandon the 19th of November. The event was televised in Nigeria.
Mr. Dalton, travelled to Lagos Nigeria with Secretary General Master Nicholls and Vice President Mr. Tibollo as part of an ITF delegation working to develop the ITF in that region. Mr. Fitzgibbon, Mrs. Dalton and Mr. Keane also travelled to aid in instruction and to compete in the Intercontinental Cup. Mr. Lee Hollingsworth of Imperial Taekwon-Do was also assisting throughout. The group arrived on Wednesday night and the first technical workshop was instructed by Mr. Dalton on Thursday. Friday saw the first day of the official workshops and referee course. The technical instruction was expertly taught by Master Nicholls while Mr. Dalton taught much of the referee section. The training lasted from 1.00am to 6.00pm in the stiffening African heat and the same schedule was followed on the Saturday. There was a special banquet hosted by the International Taekwon-Do Federation on the Saturday night and this was attended by Mr. Tibollo, Master Nicholls, ITF Nigeria President and Host Mr. George Ashiru (6th Dan ITF, 7th Dan WTF) all the African and European delegates. Sunday morning witnessed the meeting of the African countries present, with Master Nicholls and Mr. Tibollo as well as Mr. Dalton and Mrs. Dalton. It was a very productive meeting and a strong foundation was laid for future growth of the ITF in the coming years. The future looks very bright indeed. Following the Intercontinental Cup (reviewed later) the Irish and Nigerian members travelled to Ogun State for some sight seeing and while there they also met the Nigerian Sports Minister. The IUTF would like to thank Mr. Ashiru and Mr. Mr. Mykel Eneduwa and all our African family for the fantastic week and wonderful memories. The week long trip was funded by the IUTF.
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The Irish United Taekwon-Do Federation had the huge honour of hosting Europe’s only International Instructors Course for 2006 and the 40th Anniversary Banquet Celebration of the ITF. The event was successful beyond expectations with a massive 220 participants. The Friday night started with IUTF President Mr. Don Dalton (VI) conducting the warm ups and this was followed by the splitting up into groups under the instruction of Master Nicholls, Master Wheatley, Master Sahota, Master Harry, Master Hogan, Master Sanders and the newly promoted Master Ogbourne. This new system proved to be very popular with the members as everyone had the opportunity to train under the various Masters. ITF Vice President Mr. Michael Tibollo finished the evening with a period dedicated to “moral culture” which was very well received by all.
Saturday saw the first days training under President Choi. Mr. Dalton again conducted the warm ups and Master Wheatley took over for some technical instruction prior to the entrance of the President of the ITF. There was a tumultuous applause when President Choi took the floor shortly after. As always everybody was relaxed due to the friendly manner of President Choi. He placed particular relevance on the importance of power. According to President Choi practitioners need to perform every movement with repetition and realism and said “it is better to practice a technique 1001 times than 1000 times.” He emphasised the significance of quality repetition of techniques many times.
Saturday night saw the 40th Anniversary of the ITF Banquet which was a black tie event. The ITF Banquet was attended by over 200 people. Ms. Frances Tibollo sang a beautiful rendition of “My Way” which accompanied the ITF DVD of the life of General Choi. There was a huge round of applause and cheering with the announcement that Mr. Mark Ogbourne of PUMA (UK) was to be promoted to 7th Degree black belt. Master Ogbourne is one of the most liked and respected Taekwon-Do practitioners in Britain and he will surely be a positive force in the future growth of the ITF in the years to come. President Choi again demonstrated his friendly attributes as he took the time to go to every single table in the auditorium to talk to the many ITF members in attendance. The event organiser Ms. Patricia Dalton was noted as saying that “President Choi is truly the people’s president. He has a tremendous presence and yet he is so friendly and has a great sense of humour. It was a fantastic honour to have the opportunity to host President Choi in Ireland.”
Sunday was started with an international dan grading with members from Ireland, USA, Afghanistan and Bulgaria testing. President Choi started the course soon after and included a section on developing power on the kick pads. The day finished with an in-depth section on the first degree patterns and this was followed by a photo session. Everyone was given the opportunity to have their photo taken with the President. The city of Cork held a special Civic Reception for President Choi on the following day. Many black belt instructors stayed on for this event and they were treated to some wonderful traditional Irish music and indeed impromptu Irish dancing by some of the IUTF members. President Choi seemed to especially enjoy this performance as the ITF family atmosphere pervaded the City Hall throughout the morning. The City Mayer, Councillor Clune paid special thanks to the extraordinary service that the country’s many Taekwon-Do instructors have given since the 1970s. She stated that the art and its instructors were directly responsible for positively effecting the lives of thousands of Cork and Irish people through the years and has as a result been of great benefit to society. Lord Mayor Clune was then awarded an honouree ITF black belt by President Choi. It was a perfect end to a perfect weekend.
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On Sunday, 5th November, Loughrea Taekwon-do Academy hosted the first 1st Connacht Club Beginner Championships. The goal of the tournament was to give lower grade students some competition experience in a friendly and relaxed environment. The event was run by Mr. Fitzgibbon and Mrs. Sandra Doyle, Loughrea instructor, with the tremendous assistance of all Connacht's black belts.
The day started with a grading for the junior grades in which the standard was superb with over ten A grades produced for the twenty six students. Afterwards, the Galway Academy put on a fantastic demonstration for the enthralled crowd. The spectators particularly enjoyed seeing the junior members of the demo squad performing with great confidence. The exhibition consisted of self-defence, team pattern, step sparring, fundamental exercise and destruction. There were no less than six World Championship medallists in the demonstration team.
The tournament began with a challenge match between Galway's Mr. Nigel Burke and Athlone's Mr. Leon Brydone over 2 X 2 min. rounds. The exciting match showed two talented fighters in action with the result going to Mr. Brydone. Not to be outdone, two colour belt teams went head to head in the Galway Vs Athlone team challenge. Three excellent bouts saw victory going to Athlone once again at 2 to 1. The Athlone team consisted of Seamus Toal, Alan Murphy and Chloe Joyce, with the Galway team made up of Shane O' Neill, Colm Smith and Roisin Dalton..
Next, the beginners got going with great excitement after being fired up by all the previous action. They competed in sparring, patterns, and a novelty side piercing kick section. The standard was extremely high from the beginners and the results are available at www.connacht-taekwondo.com
On February 26th 50 students from both Cabra and Inchicore Taekwon-Do Academies in Dublin tested for promotion in front Mr Don Dalton and Mrs Patricia Dalton bot IUTF examiners. Both examiners put the eager students through their grading requirments which included tul (patterns), fundementel movements and techniques, kicks, stances, no contact jayo matsogi and contact jayo matsogi. Mr Dalton paid particular attention to foot postions on yop cha jirugi for the fundamental technique section. Mrs Dalton focused on correct chambering and hand postions of each movement.
After the tough physical examination, each student was then tested on their knowledge of Taekwon-Do. Questions were asked about sections of the body, proper attacking and striking tools, pattern interpretations and the history of Taekwon-Do. On completetion of the test and after assessing the grading results Mr Mackey was pleased to see that the standard in theory and attitude had increased as well as sparring. A special mention should go to Shane Bowers who was double promoted to red stripe after achieving top marks in all sections of his test.
Congratualtons to all those students who were successful in their tests and who have been promoted to their next colour belt.
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New Taekwon-do Academy for Co. Galway
| On Tuesday, 7th February, Connacht Taekwon-do Schools spread to the North of County Galway, when Mr Fitzgibbon opened Headford's first Taekwon-do Academy. After a comprehensive promotion locally, the first class kicked off with over thirty eager students, thus getting the Academy off to a fine start. This is now the fourth IUTF school in County Galway, with the other locations in Galway City, Oranmore, and Loughrea. |
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This years Munster Championships was held in Tralee. The event was well attended with over 250 competitors. The men's Black Belt patterns was won by Mr. Jon Mackey from IUTF Dublin and the Ladies Black Belt patterns was won by Ms. Claire O' Sullivan of Caherciveen and LIT Taekwon Do. The men's BB Sparring was won by Mr. Sean Keane of Charleville and UCC TKD, while the middleweights was won by Mr. Marc Dowling of the South West TKD Club. Mr. John O' Connor was victorious in the lightweights. Ms. Moira McElligot of Listowel TKD won the ladies heavyweight sparring and the lightweight section was won by Ms. Norma Carroll of Millstreet and Tramore TKD. The IUTF would like to wish Ms. Carroll the best of luck during her upcoming trip to Australia.
The South West Taekwon-Do Club celebrated its 20th Anniversary in style in January with a special training workshop and banquet. The club was founded by Mr. Don Dalton, 6th Dan, in 1986 and has become one of the leading martial arts schools in Ireland over the ensuing decades. It has produced numerous world champions and senior instructors. It is now instructed by Mr. Dalton and Ms. Patricia Dalton with the help of some of their students. Amazingly the first three students of the school are still training today, Mr. John Riordan, 5th Dan, Mr. Shane Fitzgibbon, 5th Dan and Mr. Jason Moriarty, 4th Dan. Each of them now run their own successful clubs around the country and all still train each week with Mr. Dalton. The workshop was attended by approximately 140 students (the majority of which are training with the club), and was split into two sections. The first part was conducted by Mr. Dalton, after which his own instructor, Mr. Patrick McCarthy of IUTF England, then took over for the second period (on Ho Sin Sul). In fact, the event was a double celebration since Mr. McCarthy actually started teaching in the same town 25 years previously before emigrating to the UK in early 1986.
Later that night, a special banquet was held in one of the local hotels. Various presentations were made on behalf of the national association. Some of the current and past world champions were introduced to the crowed of 90 persons. Mr. Dalton made a presentation to his instructor Mr. McCarthy in thanks for the 25 years of guidance and help. The final presentation was made to Mr. Dalton himself by his senior students on behalf of the IUTF. Mr. Riordan and Fitzgibbon spoke emotionally in thanking Mr. Dalton for the past 20 years and both looked foward to the coming years ahead under his leadership.
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Mr. Dalton, Riordan and Fitzgibbon Travelled to London to train with Master Galarraga of Argentina in the ITF Referee/Umpire Course. The trio had the opportunity to train with one of the world’s greatest Taekwon-Do exponents and instructors. The event was extremely detailed and every one was relaxed throughout due to the excellent instruction from the head of the ITF Umpire/ Referee Committee. The course was very well organised and the venue was impeccable.
The national team will now even be stronger with the news that ‘Taekwon-Do Ireland’ under the instruction of Mr. Dermot Walsh (6th Dan) has just joined ITF Ireland. Mr. Walsh has a long and glorious history in Irish Taekwon-Do circles and was a stalwart of the Irish National team in the 1980s. His knowledge will be a valuable asset over the coming years to ITF Ireland. Mr. Walsh has many top class international competitors and many senior instructors working within ‘Taekwon-Do Ireland.’ TKDI will host a competition in Bandon on May 7th. We would like everyone to support this event.
5th Degree Black Belt, Mr. Khalid Iqbal of the UK travelled to Cork to conduct two seminars for the UCC and CIT clubs. Mr. Iqbal dealt in detail with special exercises needed to develop explosive jumping skills needed for special technique breaking. Mr. Iqbal has been of great help to the IUTF over the years conducting various courses throughout the country. He runs a large UK based Taekwon-Do group with over 30 schools
The IUTF Instructor’s Course was held this year in Listowel. The course was headed by Mr. Patrick McCarthy of IUTF England and he was assisted by IUTF Vice President Mr. Riordan and IUTF Secretary General Mrs. Dalton. The course lasted the full day and was attended by many trainee instructors from around the country. There was an opportunity for role playing throughout the day and this proved to be very popular amongst the participants who used every opportunity to “wind up” the new prospective instructors.
Mrs. Dalton has just become the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) Vice President for Light Contact Sparring. This position means that she will be responsible for the development of Light Contact Sparring throughout the world. This will include such areas as system of scoring, rules etc. Mrs. Dalton thanked the WKA for the honour and said that she looked foreword to working closely with World President Mr. Paul Ingram and World Vice President Mr. Klaus Nonnemacher in the years to come. “This news also coincides with the creation of WKA Ireland which will promote the light contact sparring section of the WKA in the Republic of Ireland. We will be promoting the WKA in a new and vibrant manner over the ensuing years.” Mrs. Dalton was presented with a special IUTF award to celebrate the news at the Munster Championships. The award read: “In recognition of service to the IUTF and its members, for outstanding instruction to the IUTF students in Kerry and Cork and with congratulations on the event of your selection as World Vice President of Light Contact Section of the WKA.”
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