On March 21st/22nd 2009 the I.N.T.A. held their 10th International Open I.T.F. Championships in Dublin at the National Basketball arena; Tallaght. A total of 509 competitors battled it out over the two days for the honors and displayed both professionalism and perseverance in the pursuit of their goals, putting on a fine display in front of a mass of spectators.

7 countries in all were represented, with a number of competitors from their respective National teams taking part, most notably Miss Julie Cross from Scotland, 6 times world champion. The stakes were high for members of the Irish National Squad, many of whom were competing for places on the team to travel to the European championships in Spain this year. This lead to a very competitive Back belt competition in both the Junior and Senior competitions.

From Left to Right: Master O’Toole, Master Nicolaisen, Master Sutherland, Master Douglas, Master Van Berghen

Special guests for the tournament were Master Sheena Sutherland 8th Degree (Scotland), Master Brendan O’Toole 7th Degree (Ireland), Master Frank Van Berghen 7th Degree (Belgium), Master Ray Nicolaisen 7th Degree (Norway) Master Val Douglas 7th Degree (Ireland) and Tournament director. Also in attendance with students for ITF Wales was Mr. Neil Ernest 4th Degree.

The I.N.T.A. organising committee was delighted to have the opportunity to organise the event and was very thankful to all the individuals especially those who travelled long distances and assisted in making the tournament such a huge success. The spectators were treated to a fantastic exhibition of patterns, sparring, Power and Special technique by male and female competitors who were a credit to both the I.T.F the I.N.T.A, their coach and themselves.

A Special thank you must go to the Tournaments Umpire council of Master Val Douglas (tournament director), Mr. Niall Jones and Mr. Cormac Llewellyn for the dedication and hard work over the entire weekend and also to the many Umpires and officials (48 in total) from the different organizations who gave up the time to help make the event a Safe, enjoyable and successful one.

When all was over it had been a very successful 10th anniversary Open Tournament for the I.N.T.A. From white belt to black belt everybody had a great weekend and friendships were rekindled and new ones made. Role on next year...

Countries in attendance: Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal.

 
 

Photography by: Jill O’Meara. For more photos visit: http://www.inta.ie/gallery/inta_open_2009/.

See the 10th I.N.T.A. Open Final Results (MS Word, 705 kB).