Morocco Open G1
South Dublin Taekwondo’s Jack Woolley was on the road again hunting points for the Olympic Qualifiers coming in January. His last ranking event of the year was based in Agadir, Morocco at the 1st Moroccan Open Championships. The event was very appealing to the SDTKD Team due to the accessibility to Morocco with direct flights from Dublin, a fresh challenge with many African teams attending and also as one of the club Coaches Anas Belmaati is originally fromMorocco. 
The team flew to Marrakesh and drove south to the host city. In his -54kg division Jack was seeded 2nd due to his ranking points achieved previously. This led to him having a bye in the 1st Round allowing him watch his prospective opponent compete in the preliminaries. In the 2nd round jack saw off Aubin Konate of Burkina Faso finishing the match early 22-5 by the 12 point gap rule [matches are ended at the end of the 2nd round if the margin exceeds 12 points]. In the ¼ finals jack was up against Saudi Arabian Ali Asiri who started strong, but once jack found his momentum he could not compete with his kicking, this match was once again ended early 21-9 sending Jack into the semis and a definite podium finish. His next bout was against a tall Tunisian Mohamed Grami who looked like a tough challenge as he saw off former European Champion and Spanish seed earlier. Jack maintained great composure and won the match 11-4 with a very professional display of match containment. This lead to the final most would have expected, a showdown with the current African Games Champion and Egyptian number one Moaz Nabil in a nail biting affair. Nabil lead the match throughout and spent almost 6 minutes doing all he could to avoid Jacks signature head kicks, all the while he was receiving deductions for avoiding play. Jack was behind 12-11 with just seconds to go, and with the last exchange, Jack drew the score 12-12 and the Egyptian was disqualified for his 10th offence [10 half point deductions leading to 5 minus points] and forfeited the match. The emotion in the arena was phenomenal, with the Egyptian Taekwondo president & dignitaries looking on you could cut the tension with a knife. This performance lead to jack taking the top step of the podium, another senior gold, and most importantly, 10 ranking points to add to his collection. Club head coach Robert Taaffe noted there were many items a great success on the day. ‘Our Moroccan Coach Anas took to the ring for 2 of 4 of Jacks bouts, gaining experience at this level, and giving our club greater flexibility of coaching at elite level. Our connection to Morocco was firmly founded with many connections and fans made, and of course, this was the final ranking event of the year which has been an amazing year for jack.’
The team relaxed that evening watching the highlights of the tournament on Moroccan state TV where taekwondo is a massive non-minority game. Jack who won an Echo Sports Award earlier this year is still a Junior technically, however with some backing from his club & country he was suggested to partake in senior level competition. His recent displays will see him nearing the top 10 in the world, and his Olympic ranking has put him in a good position to upset some of the prominent taekwondo atheletes who will attend the Olympic Qualification tournament in Istanbul in January. Coach Taaffe concluded, ‘This was one of the best events I have ever attended, the organisation committee did everything they could to put on a great show, and it was capped off hearing Amhrán na bhFiann being played in the massive arena whilst Jack watched the Irish flag being raised.’