Conlon-Oates’ brave win
A fighting fit team of 16 fighters were selected to represent the Collooney Kickboxing Club at the National Championships in City West, Dublin last weekend. Light contact and full contact fighting was on Saturday. Jarlath O’Connor was first up for the club with two ring fights on Saturday, his final against Dublin was very close, unfortunately it didn’t go the Collooney way. Brother duo PJ and Leo Scanlon , Nathan and Leyland Nooney were on the Tatamis next in -37kgs division, PJ reached the final and put on a great display, showing some lovely movement and counter punching after. Luke Brehony and Evan Mc Guinn fought next, after battling it out on the mats both fighters made their way to the podium - Luke securing silver and Evan a bronze. Shane Keaney and Cathal Monds had a busy day, fighting in two disciplines kick light and light continuous, first rounds were extremely tough as they met European Champions however, that did not deter them as they both took the win. Kyle Keaney, Lucy and Halle Conlon-Oates fought next, Kyle and Lucy taking silver and Halle bronze. Rebecca Ballantyne fought next against a current World Champion from Dublin, Rebecca secured silver. Collooney’s European champi- on Ruth Conlon-Oates was last to fight. This year sees a new, more challenging fighting division for Ruth, fighting 3 two minutes rounds at -65kgs. By the third round it was clear Ruth was a punch ahead of her opponent taking her into the final. The final was to be no easy task for Ruth as she faced one of Ireland’s most experienced and talented kickboxers - Karyna Nikotyna, Double World & European Champion. This was an extremely tiring and close fight as Ruth fought her heart out keeping her opponent in close range, it all happened in the last 20 seconds as Ruth landed a back hand to the head following through with a roundkick to the body gaining those last important scores to take home GOLD for her club. This was such close fight, Ruth keeping her opponent in close range, score board was close and it came to the last 20 seconds, Collooney’s fighter landing back hand to head and a round kick to the body to take the Gold home. Sunday saw more fighting for these 16 making it to the semi-finals and the finals. By the end of the weekend Collooney Kickboxing Club took home 1 Gold, 11 Silver and 11 Bronze medals leaving Chief Instructor Des Leonard extremely proud of his team. This weekend was only the beginning for these fighters as all those bringing home Gold and Silver have secured themselves a place on the Irish Kickboxing Team and will represent their country at the World Championships in Italy in September.