German Open 2017
South Dublin Taekwondo’s Jack Woolley kicked off his busy 2017 schedule in Hamburg last weekend at the first event of the year, which also showcased the new rule changes in WTF Taekwondo. Jack went into the event seeded #1 giving him a first round bye, in the 2nd round he faced Hassan Haider of GBR who last year defeated jack at the semi finals of the same event. Jack made the head to head 1-1 by defeating the Scot 15-13. In the quarter finals jack saw off the challenge of Spaniard Javier Vicente Ramos 20-14, leading to a semi final against Tunisias Mohamed Grami who the Tallaght native beat twice previously. Unfortunately a last gasp attack from the African Championships silver medalist took the win from Woolley leaving him to settle for bronze again in Germany. Both jack and his coach Niamh Buffini were in good spirits after the event, ‘it was a good exercise to practice the new rules which penalise leggy front leg fighters, and it was an experience we needed before our first big event the US Open in Vegas next week, when double Ranking points will be available and the division of 62 athletes contains many of the top guns we expect to meet in the Worlds in Korea later this year. We use events as training exercises and a bronze in Germany will ignite some fire in the belly to go a step further in USA’, noted Coach Robert Taaffe.
