World junior kickboxing champion Sean Brady continues to put ION Kickboxing Club on the map.
BY KIERAN McCARTHY
WORLD junior kickboxing champion Sean Brady continues to put ION Kickboxing Club on the map.
The Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí student (16) has enjoyed a tremendous year to date, not only winning gold at the Kickboxing Ireland (KBI) nationals but also qualifying to represent Ireland at the European championships later in the year, as well as rising to the top of the WAKO world rankings in his category (light contact older cadet -69kg).
This year Sean has stepped up in levels, from -69kg older cadet up to -74kg junior, and he’s taken this in his stride, while his younger brother Oisin, a two-time national champ, also won another national title recently (U13 -37kg light continuous), much to the delight of their father Bernard who runs ION Kickboxing Club.
‘The club has had a great start to the year at all different levels,’ Bernard said.
‘Sean is now a six-time national champion and he won the light continuous junior -74kg category, the kick light category and silver in the points fighting category at the nationals while Oisin won his (-37kg) light continuous category for the second year in a row and came third in the points category (-37kg).’
But there is much more to ION Kickboxing Club then its two advanced fighters, as Bernard points out the success that the club enjoyed in the New Year’s Open competition earlier this year.
‘We had nine fighters in competition and we can home with seven medals, which was fantastic. It was a great experience, it was the first competition for many of the club members,’ said Bernard, who lives in Bantry and has training centres in Bantry, Castletownbere and Kenmare.
‘The club is three years old and it has grown a lot. We have a lot going on in the club, from advanced fighters to novice fighters, we have people who don’t want to fight, we have adult classes too, fitness classes, so there’s a lot happening.’
From the Bantry training centre, Zoe Hicks (U6) won silver, Mary Fox (U9) captured silver and Dylan Hicks (U12) also impressed.
From the Castletown ION Fitness and Kickboxing studio, Sean Brady (U19) won bronze, Oisín Brady (U13) brought home two golds, Zeb Skilling (senior novice) earned a silver and Callum O’Donovan (U14) put in a very good showing, while from the Kenmare training centre, Alex Moore (U10) won gold and David Gribowiec fought well.
For more information on the club check out www.ionkickboxing.com.
