South Dublin Taekwondo

South Dublin Taekwondo were in action once again during this busy competition peroid with their annual trip to Spain for the Spanish Open World Ranking Event. SDTKD deployed 2 athletes in pursuit of honours. Ryan Doyle who recently joined the club from other martial arts backgrounds has been sent on a series of tournaments to gain experience at his new chosen sport. Competing in -45kg Cadet Ryan got 2 good matches under his belt. In his opening round he beat local Felipe Prieto Vidal 16-13 using his new skills and adapting his talents honed at hsi other clubs Firhouse Taekwon-Do Club & SBG D24. In his second match Ryan met world silver medalist Dejan Ison Arconadoand lost 20-6. This was Ryans thirs consecutive event where he has won 3 matches out of 6, which is SDTKD Clubs best record for an athlete crossing over from other martial arts. On day 2 Jack Woolley was on the mat is search of World 7 Olympic Ranking Points. In a highly competitive division with World Medalists, Olympians & Grand Prix Medalists Jack won a well earned Bronze medal after 4 fights. In the Round of 32 jack Beat Felipe Sobarzo of Chile by 23-3, in the round of 16 he overcame Jacier Vicente of Spain 42-2, and in the quarter final he beat Mertcan Dolmaci of Turkey 24-4. With 3 matches now ended early by the ’20 points gap’ rule, Jack now had a ‘clash of the titans’ match against World Silver Medalist, Grand Prix Champion and Recent Grand Slam Bronze Medalist Mikhail Artamanov or Russia standing in the way of a place in the final. The match went all the way to thw wire where the Russian came out on top 11-15. This was the thirs time jack has met this momentus fighter, he has not yet clinched the win, but he has now closed the gap to one of the world superstars in taekwondo. In his -58kg division Jack picked up 3.6 World taekwondo & Olympic Ranking points to add to his collection. This is Jacks 5th time to enter the spanish open, and hsi record is something to behold. In all events he has reached the podium; 2012 – bronze, 2015 – Silver, 2016 – Silver, 2017 – Gold, 2018 – Bronze. Jack has resided in Spain ahead of these championships, and will return to Madrid for a few more days training with Hankuk Taekwondo & Olympic Coach Jesus Ramal before departing to Morocco for the African Presidents Cup which is a ‘G2’ or Grade 2 event called the ‘African Presidents Cup’ which he won last year in his previous weight of -54kg. He now hopes to become the champion once again in the higher weight of 58kg which has become his focus for 2018.