On Saturday 17th September several members of the Gassor’s Tournament Team along with assistant team coach Mr Chris Thomas travelled to Wexford, Ireland to compete in the Irish Kup Cup.

The day started with a journey from The Martial Arts and Fitness Centre in Newport, South Wales to Fishguard, to catch the ferry over to Roeselare.

After a 4 hour ferry ride that included the team having a small meal and discussions on what it was going to be like we finally docked in Roeselare and was met by the event organiser Mr Michael Flaherty, 5th degree Black Belt alongside his assistants Miss Bernadette Doyle 3rd degree Black Belt and Mr John O Connor 3rd Degree Black Belt who kindly guided us to our hotel to where we would be staying during our trip to Ireland.

After checking in to a very scenic and friendly hotel we later met up with Mr Flaherty, Miss Doyle & Mr O’Conner to go out for an enjoyable Chinese meal.

During the course of this meal we had many discussions over how things have changed over the years along with stories of our early days of training and things that made us become what we are today. We also discussed what the tournament was all about and established that if achieving the highest points overall as a school that school would come away with the KUP Cup.

Due to such a warm welcome we received, it was my privilege to present Mr Flaherty with a small token of appreciation in the form or a pocket watch with the Welsh dragon on it.

The following day we met up at the venue St Joseph’s Hall, Bishopswater, Wexford. We met up with our fellow umpires and competitors of the day. Each person at the venue contributed in some way from competing to refereeing. Including our teams assistant coach Mr Chris Thomas, 1st Degree Black Belt who acted as ring 1’s centre referee for the day.

The standard of all categories was very high from patterns to Sparring. The venue was well set out and the Tournament was well organised with a very friendly atmosphere and it was nice to meet our fellow Irish UK-ITF members.

Even after facing some strong opponents we were still able to walk away with an impressive 7 medals. The medal winners were as follows:

Medal Winners:

Arron Rose        -     Gold for Sparring and Bronze for Patterns

Martin Bebell     -     Gold for Sparring and Bronze for Patterns

Ryan Gane       -      Gold for Sparring

Sam Pupic        -     Bronze for Sparring and Silver for Patterns.

Master Gary Gassor, 7th degree black belt would like to personally thank Mr Flaherty and his team for such a warm welcome to his students and to congratulate them on such a successful tournament. He wished he could have attended the Tournament and taken even more competitors out to Ireland but unfortunately the date clashed alongside our Taekwon-do Grading but hopes to attend next year.

Gassor’s Tournament Team are now currently in training preparing for the UK-ITF British Championships in Reading on the 8th & 9th of October, which we are looking forward to!!