The IUTF Open European Championships were held recently in Cork and the Blackrock TaeKwon-Do club sent out their best fighters to show Europe what they could do, and out of 9 competitors took home 12 medals, including 4 gold! There some amazing shows of determination and spirit with so many students taking so many medals: Mr. Donal O’ Sullivan took bronze in the blackbelt heavy weight category, Ms. Courtney Casey took silver in the u15 blackbelt category, her father Mr. Tony Casey went on to get bronze in sparring as well as four more silver medals in destruction. The club had four new European champions then, with our youngest blackbelt Ms. Lena Mc Carthy taking the gold in u13 blackbelt sparring. Then we had Mr. David O’ Mahony who after earning a silver medal in the 2007 world championships, went onto take gold in the 2010 IUTF European Championships for fly weight sparring. Finally we Mr. Paul Manning, who recently having come from taking gold in the PUMA world opens, gold in the ITF British Opens, and bronze in the 2010 ITF World Championships, took his category by storm and secured another amazing win for Blackrock winning gold. Mr. Manning runs the Blackrock club with Mr. James Dwyer, who is the current ITF middle weight world champion, and both instructors take great pride in leading by example and leading their club onto even more great victories to come.