Dublin University Taekwondo Club (DUTC) impressed yesterday as they hosted the 2020 Taekwondo Intervarsities in the Sports Hall, picking up a total of 16 medals on the day.
DUTC welcomed clubs from around the country to College, where participants competed in various events across 28 categories. Athletes were sorted by belt colour and competed in individual sparring matches, team sparring, individual pattern and power breaking.
Among the top performers for Trinity were Barbara Babic and Rossa Brennan. They collected five individual medals between them, with Brennan finishing first in both the heavyweight male yellow-green sparring and the colour belt power breaking.
Sean Thompson also claimed an impressive medal haul. He won two individual medals – silver in the lightweight blue-red sparring and bronze in the blue-red patterns.
Laura Doyle and Paul Conway both secured individual gold medals in their respective categories. Doyle finished first in the black belt sparring, while Conway topped his grade in heavyweight blue-red sparring.
Tanzanite Chandran, Jack O’Hanlon and James O’Brien completed DUTC’s individual medal hall – they competed in lightweight yellow-green belt sparring, heavyweight blue-red sparring and lightweight yellow-green sparring respectively.
DUTC also secured a silver medal in the team patterns event. Babic, Doyle, Conway, Thompson and Chandran combined to finish second in the category.
In an email statement to The University Times, DUTC club captain Paul Conway said: “We were delighted to host this year’s intervarsities in Trinity, and extend our congratulations to all clubs who took part.”
“Our own team had a very successful day, winning a total of 16 medals. Everyone trained hard this year and I’m delighted to see our team’s outstanding performance! A big thank you to James Whelan for his excellent coaching”, he added.
DUTC will now turn their attention to their next assignment at the Leinster Championships in a week’s time. They also hope to travel to the World Taekwondo Championships, which will be held in Manchester this coming May.
