Record Success at Euros 2011

The Irish Taekwon-Do Team returned from the European Championships in Slovakia today with a record haul of 8 gold, 5 silver and 8 bronze medals. This was the best performance ever by an Irish Taekwon-Do team and led to the team being placed in second place overall at the championships losing out to Poland. 30 countries competed at the Championships with 485 competitors participating.

The 38 strong team included competitors in almost every division and exceeded the previous record medal tally by more than ten medals. Leading the medal tally was 18 year old Naomi Coonghe from Cork who won gold in Individual Pattern and Micro Weight sparring and was also classed as the best overall junior competitor. This is the second European Championships in a row that Naomi has taken the accolade of best overall junior. Also of note are brothers Ryan and Adam Shelley from Whitehall in Dublin who took gold in junior male micro weight and middle weight sparring. Adam beat the current world champion and fellow Irish team member, Dylan Fitzgibbon, in an all-Irish final to claim the middle-weight title. For the first time ever, an Irish senior female team medalled at a European Championships. The team of Sabina Mason (Dublin), Laura Cullen (Quin), Leanne Egan (Shannon), Sarah Moore (Dublin) and Emma Justice (Cork) took bronze in female team sparring.

The campaign was a massive success overall, with strong performances from the entire squad. This is summed up by the number of medals, especially the number of Golds, with 7 individual European Champions returning to Ireland.

Congratulations to the entire squad, the coaches (Mr. Stephen Cooley, Mr. Alan Troy, Mr. Niall Jones, Mr. Adrian Byrne) manager at the event (Mr. Jack Sheehan) and Irish Umpires (Mr. Pat Barry and Mr. Dave Elson).

Photos

Full report on the event to follow, for now you can visit the Irish ITF Taekwon-Do Team Facebook page for details of all the action.

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Results

Day 1

Naomi Coonghe - Gold 2nd DegreeJunior Patterns

Katie Laffan - Gold 1st Degree Junior Patterms

Emma Justice - Bronze 2nd Degree Senior Patterns

Laura Cullen - Bronze 3rd Degree Senior Patterns

Dylan Fitzgibbon - Bronze 3rd Degree Junior Patterns

Junior Female Team Pattern - Gold

Chloe Aboud - Gold -50kg Junior Sparring