Fujairah Open 2016 G2
The 4th instalment of Jack Woolley’s world tour ended up in the United Arab Emirates where he fought in another World Ranking Event. This event which is Asia’s ‘G2’ or grade 2 event had double ranking points available for athletes which drew a crowd of Olympians and World medalists to the emirate of Fujairah. The 2015 Echo Sports Star of the Year was joined by his coach Niamh Buffini who is a recipient of an Echo award also in previous years. Jack entered the event seeded second leading to a bye in the first round, his first bout was against a Saudi National team player Sultan Abdulghani who he beat comfortably 13-0. This led to a quarter final match against Lithuania National team’s Klemad Andrius who he beat 12-0. He went into the semi finals without dropping a point. In the semis he faced stern opposition Taras Malchenko from Ukraine, and won 11-4. This led to a mouth watering final against Irans Armin Hadipour Seighalini who just days before won the Rio Olympics test event in Brazil. Under Coach Buffini’s tuition Jack almost beat the Iranian phenominan previously in Croatia 2015, so the duo hoped to go a step further this time. Unfortunately it was not to be, the Iranian who has never been beaten in his career at his chosen fin weight continued his golden success keeping Jack on the second tier of the podium. South Dublin Taekwondo’s head coach Robert Taaffe summarised Jacks month, ‘This month Jack travelled to USA, Canada, Turkey & UAE. Each time returning home to switch coaches. To pull off this string of performances considering the circumstances and fatigue is just incredible. 1 gold and 3 silvers in the space of three weeks. We wanted to make a statement, and we did. Now let’s hope the statement is received by those we hope will offer support to his current ability and future potential. 40 world ranking points have been achieved in three weeks, the maximum players are permitted in a year are 60! and this should see Jack well into the top ten in the world. In 2016 he is so far the worlds most decorated Taekwondo athlete in all categories. It’s now time for rest before a half month training with the Finnish Olympic Team next month before starting competitive preparations for the European Championships in the summer’ Before jetting off to Dubai, Jack was also crowned Irish National Champion the day previous in a non contested division. Whilst he had no fight, he helped coach and guide his South Dublin Taekwondo team mates to a string of national titles at the first local event of the year, and of great importance to Jack, his best friend & training partner Aoibhe Thornton secured a double national title winning both junior & senior -49kg female with Jack in the coaches chair.