South Dublin Taekwondo

The club was away on our travels again in July where 2 athletes were selected to attend the Luxembourg Open. Day 1 of the event was the senior event attended by Irish National Team Player Jack Woolley in his -54kg Fin weight division. After a bye in round 1 due to his him being the top seed in the division, a tough start of the day saw jack face off against Saudi Arabian Fahad Alsamih in a punishing contest that ended 28-18 in Woolley’s favour. A while later Jack was up against Majid Sofiyev of Azerbaijan who had shone in earlier rounds. A decisive attack on the Azerbaijani allowed Jack run away with the lead to secure a ’12 point gap’ and finish the contest early at 17-4. This led to an inviting final with current Junior World Bronze Medalist Antonio Flecca of Italy in the final. A slow starting contest soon ran away from the Italian in favour of South Dublin’s 17 year old, who won the gold in style winning 17-9 to secure 10 more World Ranking points, and ensure he was on the podium for the 10th time this year after 12 events.

Day 2 of the event was the children’s events, where SDTKD had one up and coming athlete David Phelan competing in the Cadet -45kg division. In his first bout the 13 year old lad from Killenarden got off to the best start possible with the referee stopping the contest at the end of round 1 where david who was leading 13-1 against Richard Briskar of Slovakia won by TKO, after landing 3 consecutive head kicks. In the semi finals he faced Stephen Retter of Germany and continued his earlier momentum defeating his opponent 17-8 with a late combination of attacks. David was now into a final at his biggest event to date and with an army of travelling Irish Fans from other Irish Clubs the Irish Fans abroad dine themselves proud again helping David all the way to the finish line. The other finalist was Isnaur El’Darhanov of Germany who posed David’s toughest test to date. Throughout the 3 round final match David was behind but stayed calm and waited for his moment. In the dying seconds when 6-4 behind, David landed a crisp spinning body kick bringing the score to 7-6. With just one second left on the clock the referee awarded a point deduction against David for a suggested fall, thus bringing the score to 7-7. However David’s coach Robert Taaffe used his video replay card to protest the deducted point, arguing David had actually fallen over ‘after’ the referee stopped the match. The Irish supporters watched on in anticipation as the video review jury replayed the incident over the large screens. To the delight of the crowd, the centre referee walked back to Coach Taaffe to give him back his replay card, therefore signifying the protest had been successful. David Phelan was crowned Luxembourg Open Champion after a final match ending 7-6 in his favour. 

Shortly after the event Coach Taaffe gave his opinions on the event, ‘I’m delighted for the 2 boys and the club. Obviously Jack is well established at this level and this time not only was he a winning athlete, but a mentor to one of his younger club mates. Seeing David secure this gold, his first big one was amazing. We sent him to put in a good performance to hopefully assist him be selected to represent Ireland at the upcoming Cadet European Championships. Hopefully that has bought him a seat in the plane. He is embodying the spirit of the club at the moment and he represented all the upcoming juniors & cadets we have training hard who we hope will be competing at this World Level Shortly.’