Nov 17

Written by:
17 November 2015 

Cillian Morrissey and Oisin Chelmiah recently travelled as part of the Karate Ireland national team to compete in the World Cup for Children and World Championships for Cadets,  Juniors and Seniors in Maribor, Slovenia. The competition was held from the 5th to 8th November. Overall there were 35 athletes representing Ireland at the event. Despite the 3.30 am start on Monday morning the boys enjoyed a day in Vienna before travelling to Maribor.  On Tuesday there was a tour to Lake Bled which included a 5K Gorge Walk. The serious work then began so that all were ready for the weight in on Thursday and competition on Friday.

Cillian Morrissey competed in the World Cup for Children on the Friday where he repeated last year’s success from London by taking Gold in the Kata or technical application event and was narrowly beaten in the semi-final of the Kumite or fighting event and had to settle for Bronze.
Oisín competed over all three days.  Oisín took part in individual Kata and Kumite events in the cadet age group (under 16’s) where he won Silver in the Kata event.  Oisín also partnered with two other members of the team to take part in the team fighting event where they were narrowly beaten in the quarter finals by a strong Italian team. While this wasn’t the largest Karate Ireland team to travel to an event it was the most successful,  finishing 5th overall in the medal table with a total of 15 Gold,  20 Silver and 20 Bronze medals.  27 countries participated in the Championships traveling from as far Brazil and Chile to India and Sri Lanka.