The competition was preceded by two seminars on the Friday evening when the Moy Valley Freestyle Dojo in Ballina hosted Vicky Fricke from Germany who focused her presentation on Japanese Jujutsu. At the same time, the Faolchu Dojo in Tuam was hosting a Karate seminar with Vicky’s husband, Jens Fricke. The feedback from both seminars was very positive as both instructors are very experienced at delivering lessons in an informative, but enjoyable way.
On the Saturday morning the competition began, and the event was introduced by Martin O’Malley, Chairman of the Irish branch of the federation. Deputy Michelle Mulherin was in attendance on the morning, and opening her address to the group she offered a multi-lingual welcome, much to the delight of the international teams. Deputy Mulherin went on to congratulate all involved on the organisation and running of the event, and in particular the local Moy Valley Freestyle group under Mr. Harry Thompson, who had done so much work to secure the hosting of such a prestigious event. This had taken a lot of hard work on their behalf, but offered great opportunities for the promotion and development of martial arts as a minority activity in the area, and to showcase Ballina and its sporting facilities on an international level. Closing her speech, Deputy Mulherin wished all of the competitors the very best in their competitions.
These sentiments were reiterated by Cllr Jarlath Munnelly, who welcomed all the visitors to Ireland and to the town of Ballina. Councillor Munnelly also spoke as a parent whose child had recently begun martial arts practice, and of his admiration of the discipline, dedication and determination of all the people involved. He too wished the contestants well in the competitions.
Finally, Jens Fricke spoke on behalf of the International Martial Arts Federation, Europe where he outlined the basic concept of the federation as one which brings martial artists together for mutual education and friendly competition. He congratulated the Irish branch on the organisation of the event, and he too wished the contestants well in the event.
With the formalities out of the way, the day began with Karate Kata for children aged 4 and 5 years and progressed through the age groups to the over 35’s. There were some excellent demonstrations of Shotokan, Shorin-ryu, Shito-ryu and Goju-ryu Kata, and earning a medal was extremely tough. This was followed by the second form of demonstration competition, the Weapons Kata division. With demonstrations of the Katana (sword), Nunchaku, Tuifa (baton), Bo (staff), and Sai (Truncheon) the skill of the participants was really revealed by the dexterity of their weapon manipulation and control.
After the initial medal presentations, it was on to the ‘combat’ divisions. These began with the ever popular Kengeki (sword fighting) divisions. Using foam swords to strike the targets, the children thoroughly enjoyed this division, while the older age groups saw some fierce competition among the teams. The day closed with the Kumite (Karate Point Fighting) divisions, where again there were some great battles between closely matched fighters. Earning a medal was certainly a tough challenge, but all three nations took their fair share.
The feedback after the event was very positive with Kris Tunen, the head of the Belgian delegation requesting the dates for the 2017 edition as soon as possible. Similarly, Jens Fricke who was there as head of the German group said that he and his team thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, and are looking forward to the next chance to be back in Ireland.
From an Irish point of view, Martin O’Malley told us that ‘creating these events is not easy and I want to thank everyone involved, the local hosts Harry Thompson and his team at Moy Valley who arranged the competition, the Civil Defence for providing the first aid cover, and the Ballina Leisure Centre for their excellent facilities, and of course, I want to thank both Deputy Mulherin and Cllr Munnelly for showing their support for the event’. Martin added that he would ‘also want to say thank you to all those who travelled to officiate at the event and who worked hard to ensure that it all ran smoothly. Lastly, I want to thank all those who turned up to take part in the competition. Without that support we could not have had the success we did’.
