US Open 2017
South Dublin Taekwondo Club were in action at their now annual trip to the USA for the World Taekwondo Federation US Open which was held at the Westgate Casino & Conference Centre. As the next Olympic cycle is now well underway SDTKD took the opportunity to invite some up & coming hopefuls as well as Irish Elite athlete Jack Woolley.
The 4 day tournament which is the biggest taekwondo event in the World with 2,649 entries fighting it out for the double World Ranking points on hand. Woolley, 18, fought in the final day of the event and went into the draw seeded 2 behind the world number one from Mexico. Jacks seeding guaranteed him a bye in his division of 62 fighters. His first opponent in the round of 32 was to be Dennis Gonzalez Colon of Puerto Rico which Jack won comfortably 17-1. In the round of 16, Jack fought USA’s Brandon Fletcher and kept his composure to win 13-7. In the 1/4 finals Adriano Alves of Brazil stood in between the Irish fin weight (-54kg) and his 4th USA Podium finish in 3 years, an overpowering display of head hunting coupled with patience saw Jack take the victory 13-7. A semi final with World bronze medalist Ramnarong Sawekwiharee of Thailand would now determine if Jack could reach a third consecutive US final. Unfortunately it was to be the end of the road for Woolley, is Thai counterpart gave an excellent display of match management and utilised the new rules to their fullest effect to win 24-4, before going onto beat the World number 1 Cesar Rodriguez in the final 34-19. Initially devastated by the loss, Woolley came around with the realisation of what had been achieved over the gruelling day, noting on his Instagram site, ‘Bronze today at the G2 US Open. Happy with the way I fought all my matches, I was beaten by the better fighter on the day. Lessons learned and new friends made, onwards and upwards’.
Jack was joined by 3 of his team mates Aoibhe Thornton, Eoghan Gorman & David Phelan who were identified by SDTKD Club as Up and coming athletes warranting high level exposure. Aoibhe made her senior debut on day 3 narrowly loosing out to her experienced counterpart from Canada Chloe Plante in her -53kg division. The scores were all tied at 6-6 after two rounds until Plante pushed forward to take the win. The other travelling athletes were forced to take orders not to compete due to pre-existing injuries. Gorman is recovering after hamstring damage sustained, and Phelan suffered a broken arm during Christmas Training.
Club coach Robert Taaffe summarised the event, ‘I’m very happy with this event. Both athletes performed at a level that has shown great progress in respect of their current development. Aoibhe really upped her game to the next level, and I feel the decision to up her weight payed off as she looked strong. Jack was very focused & diligent with his kicking, we didn’t chase excessively high scoring matches to save energies for later rounds. He was beaten by a phenomenal player from Thailand, but that defeat will prove pivotal in our preparations for some future upcoming events where will meet him again in medal matches. We had great support from our other travelling coaches Niamh Buffini & Dylan Leonard, it was unfortunate we were struck with injuries, but even with the injuries the athletes travelled to give our team a voice in the crowd where the Irish are welcomed annually in the US.’