4 member of Blackrock Tae Kwon Do travelled
to the Taekwon-Do International European Championships in Davos, Switzerland.
Instructor Paul Manning along with Black Belt students, Tony Casey, Courtney
Casey & Lena McCarthy. Day one saw the entire team compete. The
girls both preformed well but finished outside the medal positions in both
Patterns & Sparring. Tony unlucky to finish 4th in Patterns had
a close fight with a German fighter who went on to win the division. Paul defeated
his Welsh opponent in the first round and faced off against a tough Russian in
the Quarter-finals, who had just beaten the current TI World Champion. After a
great tactical fight Paul was in to the Semi final where he narrowly lost out
to the eventual Gold medallist. Day two was the destruction & team
events. Courtney & Lena teamed up with a Dutch girl for the Tag team event
where the won a Bronze medal after narrowly losing out to Team Germany. Tony
took part in all 8 breaking disciplines where after finishing 2nd to
breaking expert Master John Svenson of Norway, Tony finally took gold with
Knife-Hand strike. This added a European title to the World title he won in
England last year. Well done to the entire Blackrock team who
are now preparing for their 3rd international event of 2014, the
Holland Cup in the Netherlands in June