Players Points League 2015 Final Standings

1st Place – Kim Rena
2nd Place – Jed Rena
3rd Place – Sean Byrne

Not long after Echo Sports Star of the Year Jack Woolley had left the Green Isle hotel, he was out on the road running during the night running to ensure his weight was on point and in Dublin Airport the next morning with his coach Niamh Buffini for an early couple of flights to Cyprus via London where he competed with at an invitational tournament. Jack was requested to attend the international event which was to promote taekwondo in Cyprus due to good relations between theCyprus Taekwondo President and his Irish counterpart Master Martin Fleming. The 17 year old who fights at -54kg and his coaches accepted the invitation as it was a good way to keep Jack ring fresh ahead of the January Olympic Qualifiers. Although the event was a smaller affair than the South Dublin Taekwondo athlete has attended this year, some well-known teams and adversaries of Jacks were competing. Jack had 2 matches on the day, both with Israeli National Team opponents. His first match was against Nimrod Krivishkiy which ended 10-3 in favour of Woolley, the match brought some closure to a recent semi-final encounter in Croatia where the Israeli could not compete in the semi finals against the Irish Team player due to injury. In the final, Jack faced off against Hilell Zaritsky, a rematch of Jacks preliminary round bout at this years Israel Open Championships, on both occasions Jack managed to win convincingly with a ’12 point gap’ early finish to the match, in this case the final score was 21-9 giving Jack 1^st place & another international gold. This whirlwind weekend brought to an end to a fabulous competitive outing in 2015, and now all sights are set on his training preparations including a training camp in Madrid over the Christmas. Jack now will need to adapt his weight and match play from his -54kg usual division to the -58kg Olympic weight category in time for his next competitive match in Turkey here he hopes to reach the final to gain one of the final Olympic placings for Rio 2016.

Well done to Jack Woolley who was awarded Echo Sports Star of the year 2015. See links below for media.

South Dublin Taekwondo (SDTKD) have a panel of proud coaches after their latest successful black belt grading candidates. 5 of the clubs strong Filipino contingent passed their black belt grading under the watchful eye of the Irish Taekwondo Union Grading Panel at a tough 3 hour test on Saturday 21st November. It was very much a family affair with pair Jed & Kim Rena and trio Jophert, Janella & Justin catching the eyes of the examiners on the day. All were awarded ‘Kukkiwon’ black belts, awards from the highest taekwondo authority in the world, and a world recognised award that is a passport in taekwondo recognised in the 206 member nations of the World Taekwondo Federation, and enables the holder follow many pathways in taekwondo such as coaching or major European, World or Olympic Championships some day. Both Jed & Kim Rena crossed over from ITF Taekwondo a few years ago and made a seamless transition into Olympic style taekwondo, and the Depakakibo trio now join their sister Jamilah who holds a 2nd Dan and coaches at SDTKD. Coach Robert Taaffe noted, ‘this group have raised the bar at the club to the max, often the first to arrive, last to leave, they find a great balance between school & training, oftentimes studying homework at the back of the training hall, they are affectionately seen as young mentors in our club and give so much back to the up & coming grass roots taekwondo children.’ Jed was awarded ‘student of the day’ by the Examination panel for his focused efforts and display on the day. Coach Taaffe concluded, ‘This was a proud day for our club coaches, members and parents, and as with all of our promoted black belts, they always strive to encourage the next group of potential applicants coming up behind them.’

South Dublin Taekwondo’s Jack Woolley was on the road again hunting points for the Olympic Qualifiers coming in January. His last ranking event of the year was based in Agadir, Morocco at the 1^st Moroccan Open Championships. The event was very appealing to the SDTKD Team due to the accessibility to Morocco with direct flights from Dublin, a fresh challenge with many African teams attending and also as one of the club Coaches Anas Belmaati is originally fromMorocco.  The team flew to Marrakesh and drove south to the host city. In his -54kg division Jack was seeded 2^nd due to his ranking points achieved previously. This led to him having a bye in the 1^st Round allowing him watch his prospective opponent compete in the preliminaries. In the 2^nd round jack saw off Aubin Konate of Burkina Faso finishing the match early 22-5 by the 12 point gap rule [matches are ended at the end of the 2^nd round if the margin exceeds 12 points]. In the ¼ finals jack was up against Saudi Arabian Ali Asiri who started strong, but once jack found his momentum he could not compete with his kicking, this match was once again ended early 21-9 sending Jack into the semis and a definite podium finish. His next bout was against a tall Tunisian Mohamed Grami who looked like a tough challenge as he saw off former European Champion and Spanish seed earlier. Jack maintained great composure and won the match 11-4 with a very professional display of match containment. This lead to the final most would have expected, a showdown with the current African Games Champion and Egyptian number one Moaz Nabil in a nail biting affair. Nabil lead the match throughout and spent almost 6 minutes doing all he could to avoid Jacks signature head kicks, all the while he was receiving deductions for avoiding play. Jack was behind 12-11 with just seconds to go, and with the last exchange, Jack drew the score 12-12 and the Egyptian was disqualified for his 10^th offence [10 half point deductions leading to 5 minus points] and forfeited the match. The emotion in the arena was phenomenal, with the Egyptian Taekwondo president & dignitaries looking on you could cut the tension with a knife. This performance lead to jack taking the top step of the podium, another senior gold, and most importantly, 10 ranking points to add to his collection. Club head coach Robert Taaffe noted there were many items a great success on the day. ‘Our Moroccan Coach Anas took to the ring for 2 of 4 of Jacks bouts, gaining experience at this level, and giving our club greater flexibility of coaching at elite level. Our connection to Morocco was firmly founded with many connections and fans made, and of course, this was the final ranking event of the year which has been an amazing year for jack.’

The team relaxed that evening watching the highlights of the tournament on Moroccan state TV where taekwondo is a massive non-minority game. Jack who won an Echo Sports Award earlier this year is still a Junior technically, however with some backing from his club & country he was suggested to partake in senior level competition. His recent displays will see him nearing the top 10 in the world, and his Olympic ranking has put him in a good position to upset some of the prominent taekwondo atheletes who will attend the Olympic Qualification tournament in Istanbul in January. Coach Taaffe concluded, ‘This was one of the best events I have ever attended, the organisation committee did everything they could to put on a great show, and it was capped off hearing Amhrán na bhFiann being played in the massive arena whilst Jack watched the Irish flag being raised.’