Congratulations to the ITF Ireland team who had a successful European Championships in Bulgaria with 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze.
Day one started off with Mr Mark Pollock winning Bronze in the Veteran male 3rd dan patterns followed up with Ms Patrice Conaty winning the Gold in the veteran female 1st dan patterns. There was disappointment for Hannah Eade and Roisin O'Neill who lost out in their quarter finals to the eventual winners in Child red belt and Junior black belt pattern divisions. Kia Conaty-Carley also had a great performance in the Red Belt child patterns.
Day two saw Ms Patrice Conaty winning Silver after losing out in Sudden death golden point in the +75kg Veteran Female Sparring Final to England. Mr Mark Pollock went though to semi finals of veteran +90 sparring after a tough match against Czech Republic. Kia and Hannah had tough starts to their International sparring careers with both getting a Russian in the -165cm female child sparring divisions. The more experience Russians won but both Irish girls showed great potential for the future.
Day three had a great start with Mr Pollock moving into the Final against Serbia after his Bulgarian opponent withdrew. He then went on to win in a hard match with the Serbian. This was quickly followed up by another Gold with Lauren Bradshaw showing great skills to beat her Russian opponent in the Final of the 14-15 Female +70kg Sparring. Lauren had earlier won against Greece and Bulgaria to get to the Final. Unfortunately there were no more medals but some brave performances in sparring from Dylan Russell, Roisin O'Neill, Leon Brennan and Lauren Russell. Great experience for the future.
On Day Four Ms Conaty picked up a Bronze in the Female Veteran power division. Ciaran Pollock and Neidin Coulihan were sparring action but lost out to very experienced fighters in the 16-17 +75 kg male sparring and -75 Kg Adult Female Sparring respectively. The new exciting team sparring event of "Power Taekwon-Do" was demonstrated with Russia winning the full contact matches against Croatia and Bulgaria.
Day 5 was a great end to the European Championships with Ms Neidin Coulihan winning the Silver in Female power breaking. Earlier in the day Ms Patrice Conaty won Gold in the Mixed Veteran Self Defence Routine with Mr Adam Fox and Mr Mark Pollock. Mr Pollock then won bronze in the Male Veteran Self Defence with Mr Adam Fox, Dylan Russell and Ciaran Pollock.
Full team selection for the European Championships:
Umpires: Senior Master Francis Barrett, Master Robert Howard and Mr Floyd Keane
National Coach Mr Stephen Doyle
