The Scottish Taekwon-Do championships was next up for the competitors of Red Star. Hosted by the UTFS, the championships took place over the weekend of February 25th and was held in Falkirk. Red Star sent a small team of black belts to compete along side the larger Irish squad from the IUTF. The event was very well organised with nine rings running throughout the day with Master Brown at the helm.
The Red Star competitors were in flying form as usual and the medal haul began good and early with Néidín Coulahan winning gold in the 1st degree patterns division with Donna Mackey securing bronze in the same category with a solid performace of Ge Baek but missed the decision. Next up for patterns was Laura Flynn who won through an extensive division of junior 1st degrees also to take the gold with a fine performace of Ge Baek. It was Jordan Roche’s turn next to win his way to the final of the junior 1st degree patterns to win a silver with Dylan Russell taking the bronze in the same division.
In sparring Lauren Bradshaw dominated a large division in the HW junior girls winning gold extending her run of victories remaining unbeaten in over two years. Lauren Russell also took gold in the MW junior girls division with some good use of her lead leg side kick. Leon Brennan fought his way through a tough division to meet world class Jordan Dalton in the final of the junior male LW’s, this proved a valuable learning experience for Leon against the far experienced Jordan, silver for Leon. Dylan Russell was on fire throughout the sparring division with two stoppages to his name, fast forward pressure won it for him, he met Dylan Lacey in the final, Dylan origninally had his hand raised but on a recount the fight went to Dylan Lacey. Jordan Roche took silver in his HW division also with some good performances from him. Néidín Coulahan was unlucky in the final of the senior ladies HW sparring losing out to well timed lead leg SK’s from Ms McKenna, so silver for Néidín but great fights for her also. Luke McCarney was in good form in his division of MW junior boys securing a place in final of a large division to lose out to a talented Scot, silver for Luke also. Laura continued her medal winning as she took bronze in her division of sparring.
In the senior male HWs Jon Mackey made a return to the ring winning gold, beating Scotland’s own Nik Purves in the opening round, Jon dominated his next fight to take the gold.
In the team events, the junior girls Red Star team won gold beating the IUTF girls in the final with Lauren Bradshaw securing the win in the final fight to take the event 3-1. The Red Star boys lost out to the IUTF boys in a great bout filled with a competitive atmosphere as only an Irish bout can provide! The senior men lost out to Scotland in the final of the international senior team event with some great performances on both sides.
Lauren Bradshaw – Gold x2
Néidin Coulahan – Gold & Silver
Laura Flynn – Gold x2 & Bronze
Jon Mackey – Gold & Silver
Lauren Russell – Gold x2 & Bronze
Jordan Roche Silver x2
Dylan Russell – Silver x2
Leon Brennan – Silver x2
Luke McCarney – Silver x2
Donna Mackey – Bronze
We would like to thank our good friends in the UTFS for hosting a great tournament, we had a blast all weekend with our Scottish cousins and our great friends in the IUTF. Weekends like these don’t come around too often.
Scotland, home away from home 🙂
Some pics can be seen here
And some videos can be seen on our Facebook page (don’t forget to hit the ‘Like’ button)
