News 001 - 01/03/2006 - ITF World championship 2005

IRELAND TAKES WORLD HONOURS

 

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The ITF World Championships ran from 28th - 31st July 2005 in Dortmund, Germany.  The national squad which comprised 16 competitors was accompanied by the national coaching team of Master Val Douglas, Mr. Terry Donnelly and Mr. Stephen Cooley, Mr. Kevin Hannigan plus sports therapist Shaun Gilmore and team manager Mr. Pat Barry.

Master Brendan O’Toole and Mr. Ken Leahy acted as umpiring officials at the championships.

The championships opened with individual patterns on Thursday morning.  Nicola McCutcheon was first to put Ireland on the podium in the female I Dan category.  Nicola won against Emi Kamei, Japan in her opening round followed by another strong victory over Scotland’s Shanthy Soorisegaram.  In the semi-final Nicola faced Marzanna Pawlik from Poland.  Poland won the decision which put Nicola in bronze medal position.

Next to reach the podium for Ireland was Niall Jones in the Male IV Dan patterns category.  Niall secured wins over Dimitrios Vlachonis (Greece), Johan Van Hecke (Belgium), Paul Majchrzak (USA) to qualify for the semi-final.  In the semi-final Niall came up against Gábor Szalay (Hungary), this was an extremely close match which could have gone either way.  The decision went in Hungary’s favour leaving Ireland with bronze medal number two.

The team pattern category commenced directly after lunch, with Ireland seeking to defend the World Championship title won in 2003.  The male team of Kevin Hannigan (c), Niall Jones, Cormac Llewellyn, Donal O'Donoghue and Ciaran Ryan had been well prepared by Master Val Douglas, Head Coach – Irish National Team.  The team recorded wins over Romania, Japan, USA and Kyrgyzstan to secure a place in the final of the world championships.  In the final bout against Argentina the teams performed to a very high level with precision timing of choreographed break-beat splits.  The scores were totalled with Argentina edging the decision and becoming World Team Pattern Champions leaving Ireland as World Silver Medallists.

In individual sparring Ciaran Ryan represented Ireland in the -71kg category.  Ciaran overcame strong competition from Luis Martinez (Paraguay), Lee Sung Bong (Japan), Thiago Preto (Brazil) to secure a place in the semi-final against 2003 World Champion Neil Ernest (Wales).  Ciaran had prepared well for this occasion and fought to a strong game-plan.  Chants of IRELAND, IRELAND sounded around the stadium while the Jury President totalled the scores.  The Jury President stood and raised his hand to signal that Ciaran Ryan was the winner and was through to the final on Saturday evening.  On Saturday evening Ciaran made no mistake when he faced Dimitrios Vlachonis (Greece) in the final and became -71kg world champion at only 17 years of age.

Ireland’s final medal came in female power breaking with Lenka Marsikova securing a silver medal in a category contested by competitors from Poland, Belgium, England, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Argentina, Latvia, Germany, Czech Republic, Canada, Romania and USA.

Final medal count:

1 GOLD

2 SILVER

2 BRONZE