2011 News

Black Belt Certificate Presentations

The annual IUTF Black Belt dinner was held in Tralee this year with special guest, Master Pat McCarthy. As well as awarding a number of recipients with their black belt certificates, Master Dalton and Master McCarthy were each presented with a beautiful cast of the IUTF emblem. This was to celebrate 25 years of the South-West TKD Centre in Tralee and thirty years since Master McCarthy first brought Taekwon-do to Tralee.

At the annual IUTF black belt dinner, five top competitors were presented with the 2010 Competitor of the Year award for their various categories. There were no less than three World Champions amongst the group.

The winners were:

Mr. Padraig O’ Connor - Adult Male

Ms. Conni Vaughan - Adult Female

Daniel O’ Sullivan - Cadet Male

Shannon Murphy - Cadet Female

Jordan Dalton - Overall Junior

Competitor of the Year Awards

Connacht Championships

This year’s Connacht Championships were held once again in Gort. With six rings running all day, the tournament was indeed one of the most successful events to date. The tournament kicking off at 9.15am for the Black Belts, and with staggered starting times for the colour belts, waiting times was very little. The entire event was finished by 3.15pm leading to praise on the efficiency of the competition by parents and students alike. Galway members cleaned up with many students taking two medals home. All students now look forward to the next major event - Leinster Championships, with anticipation.

Some Black Belt Results:

PUMA Open Black Belt World Championships

Report by Brendan Kenny (15-year old Galway black belt)

On a Thursday, the 17th of March a group from Ireland travelled to Swindon, London to compete at the first ever PUMA Open World Championships. The group was made up of people from Galway, Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Athlone. The team of competitors and supporters gathered at Rosslare Harbour to board the ferry to Fishgaurd.

After a three hour ferry journey we arrived at Fishguard, where we got the coach to Swindon. What was a four hour bus journey felt like a four minute journey with the fun, company and the sing along with Mr. Fitzgibbon and his guitar.

We arrived at the hotel on the Friday evening, once we arrived everyone checked into their rooms and went to weigh in after weigh in we got something to eat. I felt excited ahead of competition the next day.

On Saturday there was an early start. After breakfast everyone travelled on the bus to the Oasis Leisure, where the tournament was being held. Proceedings began with opening words from Master Gayle, the man who organised the tournament after the opening words there was two demonstrations one from a gymnastics team and another from a Taekwon-Do demo team. The individual events got under way shortly after the opening ceremony. There were some great results for Irish competitors with most competitors placing individual. However the evening was one of my highlights of the whole weekend because the junior team events were on. Both Irish patterns teams did very well with the boys team wining silver and the girls wining bronze. Following team patterns there was team sparring, the support from the crowd for both teams was amazing and hearing the songs and chants before sparring is a great confidence boost.  Again both teams did very well with the girls wining gold and boys wining silver. After the long day we all got back on the bus and went back to the hotel. It had been a long yet a fantastic day.

The following day the Sunday, was the adults turn and all adults were hungry for victory following the great results from the day before. The atmosphere again was amazing. Many adults won gold medals in both sparring and patterns individually. The Irish crowd got behind all Irish fighters but the atmosphere was especially electric for one of Irelands most popular fighters Mr. Leon Brydone, who after some very tough fights and a final that went to two extra times went on to win the gold medal. In the evening there were the adult team events. The men’s patterns team won bronze. The team sparring was next and there was a great atmosphere  for the final between Ireland and England with great support for both teams. It was a fantastic final which after a draw went to an extra fight, Ireland came out on top. It was a great way to finish an amazing weekend.

I would like to thank all the coaches from Ireland for all help and advice and a big thank you to Masters Black, Gayle and Ogbourne of England for organising the event.

Black Belt Grading

As part of the launch of Galway’s new full-time Taekwon-do centre, the IUTF annual black belt grading was held in this premier facility. The day started with National Squad Training which put all the attendees through their paces. IUTF chairperson and Chief Instructor, Master Dalton focused on hand sparring drills in this session as well the correct chamber and foot position for Side Piercing Kick.

Next was a closed grading for 4th dan level. The testees were Mr. John Roche (Tralee) and Ms. Claire O’ Sullivan (Caherciveen). Both were successful and add to the impressive list of international instructors in the IUTF.

The 1st-3rd degree black belt grading opened shortly after with all students thoroughly examined on all aspects of Taekwon-do including, patterns, fundamental movements, sparring drill, self-defence, refereeing, power breaking and intensive theory test. Happily, all were successful in their endeavours as announced at the end of the event by Chief Examiner, Master Dalton.

Master Barat Seminars

Report to Follow

IUTF Cork Championships

The first ever  IUTF Cork Taekwon-do Championships was a roaring success. Thanks to the excellent organisation of the event by Mr. Darren Healy and Mr. Alan Walsh, in conjunction with Master Dalton, it ran without a hitch.

Adding to the prestige of the event was the presence of twenty Argentinean competitors who accompanied Master Barat. While many of the Irish competitors are World-class the Argentinean contingent certainly kept them on their toes. The standard overall was extremely high with some terrific display of patterns skill and sparring expertise on display.

The highlight of the day for many was the team even of Irish select Vs. Argentina select. Both teams were  altered from  their original lineup due to injuries but nonetheless put on a fabulous contest ending in an exciting tie-break match that ultimately went to Argentina.

It was a hugely successful launchpad for what many hope will be an annual event in the IUTF calendar. Congratulations to the organisers who took great care of competitors and officials alike, to the extent of ensuring that the officials were catered for during the day. Well done to all the competitors without whom there would be no tournament.