Colin O'Hanlon
YOU may not be aware but Ireland is currently hosting a World Championships. For the first time ever the world's best kick boxers will be on show in Dublin, as more than 800 athletes from 53 countries jet in to take part in the sports showpiece event this week.
Minister Michael Ring opened the World Kick Boxing Championships at the City West Hotel yesterday, a truly historic moment for all those involved with the sport in the country. After years of hard work organisers have finally been able to bring the tournament to Ireland.
“We’ve always aspired to having something like this in Ireland, it’s only now after 15 to 20 years of work and development of the sport, nationally and internationally, that we’ve had an opportunity to run the World Championships here,” said Roy Baker, president of Kick Boxing Ireland.
Indeed Ireland go into the tournament as one of the countries with a high chance of securing medals. “Ireland is ranked sixth in the world; we would be one of the strongest kick boxing federations regarding the quality,” said Baker. “So we would be very hopeful that we have some serious medal hopes.”
However despite success at international level the sport has gone somewhat unnoticed at home, something that Baker hopes the World Championships will change. “It’s always difficult to get publicity when you’re up against the majority sports but we’re happy and it’s all positive. Of course we’d like to get more, but we’re happy because we don’t normally get on national television. It’s a further stepping stone for our sport.”
To ensure their athletes have the perfect build up, Kick Boxing Ireland have spared no expense in the pursuit of medals. “We’ve put more preparation into this World Championships more than any before. We’ve had athletes travel all over the world, to Italy, America, Germany, a huge amount of preparation. It truly is a once in a lifetime possibilty for our athletes.”
One of those athletes is Robbie McMenamy, the current WAKO Pro World Champion. McMenamy divides his training with his day job as a Dublin Fire Fighter and has high hopes for the coming week.”I hope to win it, I have a good draw. I won the Irish open this year against the same guys I’ll be fighting against in this tournament so there’s no reason not to replicate that.”
It appears that the Kick Boxing has a bright future in Ireland, as the sport continues to grow nationwide. “Kick Boxing Ireland has over 12,000 members now. We’re one of the largest national governing bodies in Ireland,” said Baker.
“The sport is developing; we’re getting stronger and stronger. We’re really challenging the other combat sports out there. I’m not aware of any other combat sport having that number of registered fighters. We’ve a very modern sport and we seem to be getting there now.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/0VZkVKqXS_c/post.aspx
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