Midleton Club become Champions of Europe

July 2019 saw the Choi Jung Hwa ITF European Championships take place
in Cork, with fighters travelling from all over the continent to test
themselves against the best in Europe. Teams from England, Scotland,
Wales, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Greece, Poland, Czech Republic,
Belgium, Russia, and even Argentina attended the week-long event which
was split into two separate competitions. The first was the European
Championships, where only black belts can compete and be crowned the
champions of Europe, and the second was the European Cup, where younger
students and colour belts are given the chance to represent their club
and country to win European gold.

The Midleton
Taekwon-Do Club sent out three of its best black belts and twenty of its
top colour belts and were rewarded with five European Cup gold medals,
six European Championship golds, and two new European Champions for
2019!

The first black belt up for the club was
sixteen-year-old Lauren Jordan who won bronze in welter weight sparring,
silver in team sparring as a member of the Junior Irish Team, and gold
in team patterns, giving Ireland the championship title in that
division. The club's instructor James Dwyer was next, winning triple
silver in individual sparring and as part of the Adult Male Irish Team
in sparring and power breaking, winning gold in team patterns, and
becoming the European Champion for Senior Sixth Degree Patterns. And
finally Tomasz Zienkiewicz, who was also a member of the Irish Team,
winning double silver and gold for Ireland in the three team events, but
Tomasz went one step further and incredibly won European titles,
becoming the European Champion for Senior First Degree Patterns and
European Champion for Senior Heavy Weight Sparring 2019!

Next
up was the European Cup and the gold medal winners for Midleton and
Ireland were: Cuan O Brien, who won the U8 white to yellow belt
sparring; Aaron Colbert, who won the U10 green to blue belt sparring;
Sultan Adebayo, who won the U12 white to yellow belt sparring; and
special mention to Alex Suvorov who won an amazing two gold medals in
U10 white to yellow belt sparring and U10 white to yellow belt patterns.

Huge
well done to all of Midleton's other colour belt fights, each of whom
managed to win at least one European Medal and did their country proud:
to Seamus Dwyer who won two silvers, Sofia Dwyer who won silver and
bronze, Tiarnan Galvin who won silver, Leon O Connor who won two bronze,
Liam Bowes who won two silvers, Colin White who won silver and bronze,
Angel Adebayo who won bronze, Tim O Driscoll who won silver, Laura
Colbert who won bronze, Jordan O Polo who won two silvers, Thomas Mc
Namara who won two bronze, David Qian who won two silvers, Keith O
Sullivan who won bronze, and to Erik Nabilek who won silver and bronze.

It
was a very proud day for the Midleton Taekwon-Do Club and a great day
to be representing the tri-colour flag. The next ITF European
Championships will not be for another three years, hosted next time in
Wales, so plenty of time for the club to build on this great experience
and win even more medals for Midleton and Ireland!