Twins from Midleton both land gold as Cork fighters deliver at Taekwondo World Championships 

Cork fighters showed their class at the 21st ITF Taekwondo World Championships in Barcelona, delivering five world titles.

There were 40 countries from all six continents in action as members of the Choi Hong Hwa Federation travelled to Spain in force with the top martial artists battling for the crown of best in the world.

In total, 70 were from Ireland, each one qualifying for their position as the top three in their section before they could represent their country.

The Irish fought their way to win an incredible 45 world medals, nearly half of these silver, reaching finals across multiple divisions.

And while there was heartbreak for some in missing out on the top spot, Ireland came home with a record-breaking eight gold.

Two of these were from team events, the other six were individual world titles, and out of those six new world champions, five of them come from Leeside.

Starting with the team golds, the junior boys Irish team beat every other country in two of the four team sections. While the Irish squad was 70-strong, only the top seven juniors were selected for the honour of forming the Irish team, with Midleton’s Aaron Colbert, Colin White, and Jordon O’Polo, joining Christian McCabe from Dublin, Rathpeacon’s Corey Walsh, David Pacud from Waterford, and Kinsale’s Thomas Collins.

They combined to secure gold for Ireland in the team power breaking and team special technique events, and fought their way to the world sparring finals too, televised live against Argentina, but missed out on the treble.

Alan Sands from Midleton landed an individual gold medal in the senior second-dan patterns division. Coming into the contest with a torn calf muscle, he still powered through opponents from Argentina, USA, and Argentina once again in the finals, to be declared the world champion.

EXPERIENCE

Paul Manning from Blackrock shone in the senior welter-weight sparring. The veteran was a champion in Canada in 2012 and won again 10 years later in the Netherlands. 

Retaining his title in Spain, makes Manning one of the top Irish fighters in the history of the sport.

Three golds medals were delivered by twins from Midleton, Jordan and Emily O’Polo.

Jordan was part of the Irish team which won two gold medals and went one step further in the junior hyper-weight category. He beat opponents from Argentina, UK, Kyrgyzstan, and Greece, earning a serious injury along the way, his face swelling up to close his eye, and for good measure was voted the best overall junior male competitor of the entire tournament.

Remarkabley, his twin Emily did the same, defeating fighters from Kyrgyzstan, Spain, Venezuela, and Argentina to become the Junior Middle-weight World Champion, as well as being crowned the Junior 3rd Dan Patterns World Champion.

That saw her voted the Best Overall Junior Female Competitor in the world.

Also returning a world champion was Down native Rachael Carvill, delivering in the U18 section. She smashed all her older opponents at just 14 in the 2022 worlds and retained her Junior Hyper-weight World Champion crown.

An exhausting and exhilarating week for Irish taekwondo, and while the next World Championships is another three years away, the 2028 ITF Worlds will be held in Ireland.