LILLY Cronin has added her name to the list of world champions produced by West Cork Kickboxing Club.
The Macroom teenager (16), in her first year at junior level, brought gold back from the WAKO Youth World Championships held in Italy, to become the eighth kickboxer from the club to win a world title.
She is following in famous footsteps as previous world champions include Lily de la Cour and Cronin’s current coach, Tony Stephenson.
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On another memorable outing for West Cork Kickboxing Club, Enniskeane’s Isabella Galvin (14), in her first international tournament, won a bronze medal.
For Cronin, winning gold at junior level (16-18 year-old women) in the -70kg kicklight category is her biggest achievement in the sport.
‘Lilly went into the world championships completely unranked but came out as the champion,’ explained Tony Stephenson.
‘She has been training with me in Macroom since she was six years old. I train her three to four times a week. Ian (Kingston) trains her one to two times per week, and specifically on kicklight on Thursdays so Ian has had a huge impact on improving her in the kicklight discipline.’
West Cork Kickboxing Club’s Isabella Galvin, Joe Cahalane, Evan Collins, Marcus Bogdanovs, Lilly Cronin and Nathan Cronin at the WAKO Youth World Championships.
In Jesolo, Italy, Cronin competed in two divisions – continuous and kicklight. When winning the kicklight final, she defeated a Croatian kickboxer, ranked number one, who had beaten her in the continuous category.
‘To win, Lilly had five fights, and beat Italy twice, Great Britain, Sweden and then Croatia,’ Stephenson said.
‘She dominated the British fighter, a former world champion, in the semi-finals, winning on all three judges’ cards.
‘In her final, Lilly lost the first and second round but came back in the third round, tweaked a couple of things in her tactics, piled on the pressure and won the third by cumulative score over the three rounds.
‘She dominated in the third round, completely winning by a gap of three scores on one judge and four on the other two.’
West Cork Kickboxing Club sent a strong squad to these championships, with former world champion Evan Collins from Skibbereen, Clonakilty’s Joe Cahalane, Marcus Bogdanovs from Ballymakeera, Isaac Horgan from Durrus, and Ballingeary’s Nathan Cronin also in action.
Both Cahalane and Horgan made it through to their quarter-finals, Cronin and Bogdanovs bowed out in the first round, while Collins was very unlucky to lose to the world number one in a split decision.
