Irish invade Norway

Chris Dowling

A team selection of 14 fighters, 2 coaches and 1 official made the trip to the invitational full contact cup organised by the Norwegian kickboxing federation, which was held in Oslo. Norway on the 3rd - 4th May 2014.
This is the second year in succession that Team Ireland were asked to be represented in this invitational only full contact tournament. Head Coach of team Ireland Jim Upton picked a strong 14 fighting team, assisted by Ilija Salerno and Mick McDermott was the official wako Ireland representative on the team.

Out of 14 fighters, team Ireland led by head coach Jim Upton and assisted by Ilija Salerno finished with an amazing 2 gold, 2 silver and 7 bronze medals. This is a huge step for full contact kickboxing in Ireland as once a minority in the medal placing, the past number of years has saw a huge increase in podium winners at various WAKO World, European and invitational cups. This is thanks to the strict intense training programme head coach to the national full contact team Jim Upton has put in place for all national and future want to be champions.

Star of the invitational tournament was without a doubt Seaneen Flynn who took on a much more experienced opponent from Poland in the 3 x 2 minute round final. Just turned 16 year of age, Seaneen was eager to impress and show that she will be a future world champion by dominating from start to finish not letting the experienced Polish fighter time to settle in the ring. Seaneen had a strong plan of attack which she executed from start to finish. Her older and experienced Polish opponent couldn’t answer to her flurry of combinations which led the young 16 year old to her first international win while debuting for the national team.

Peter Carr also just turning 16 years of age was the youngest member of team Ireland selected for this prestigious full contact international challenge. Peter along with Seaneen was the two only gold medal winners for the team. His final versus William Brunn from team Norway was a well planned attack and dominating combinations. Peter controlled the bout through out the three round contest and with it taking his first win under the KBI international irish team selection.

As both young fighters are travelling to the WAKO cadet & junior world kickboxing championships in Rimini in September, this will surely give them a strong confidence boost for the championships later in the year.

Thomas Japertas, a newly crowned super heavy weight in the KBI national championships earlier in March made his first outing for the national team and didn’t disappoint as he reached the final taking on a much bigger Polish opponent but alas just losing out to a close split decision in favour of his Polish adversary.

Finalist Michael Whelan from Sligo Mugendo was no stranger to this tournament as he was also in the final last year with the same opponent as this year, Said Shahwali from Norway. Unfortunately Michael was not able to finish the stronger after been named one of the best finals of the tournament by all the international judges.

Bronze medallists from the event were Claire Louise Sweetman, Jarlath O’Connor, Damian Darker, Alan Coffey, Orla O’Brien, John McAteer and Thomas Delaney. Unlucky not to place for a medal were Jaide Gibbons and Leanne Murphy.
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