The 11th INTA International Open Taekwon-Do Championships took place in Dublin’s National Basketball Arena on 12th and 13th of March 2010.

This was the biggest event organised by the Irish National Taekwon-Do Association with over 600 competitors from eight countries attending. The vent was well timed to help competitors prepare for the upcoming European Championships. This year there were close to 180 black belts competing and numbers were swelled with a large teams coming from Norway and Sweden.

As well as the high numbers of competitors a large numbers of international masters were present as VIP guests of the INTA:

Master Thomas Denis, Master Michael Thompson, Master Sandy Dunbar, Master Frank Van Bergen, Master Sheena Sutherland 8th Degree and special guest Master Paul Weiler 8th degree, vice president of the ITF joined Irish Masters, Master Gerry Martin, Master Val Douglas and INTA President Master Brendan O’Toole 8th degree. Master Kenneth Wheatley attended the event on Sunday bringing the number to 10 masters!

Saturday’s event was extremely busy with over 400 juniors competing. The large numbers and a scheduling problem with the sparring divisions saw a long day for all. 80 junior black belts competed in sparring and patterns throughout the day culminating in some terrific bouts with World Champion, Dylan Fitzgibbon from Ireland dominating his division taking gold.

Sunday saw 100 senior black belts and 80 colour belts compete. The standard was excellent. Many current and ex world champions were present:

Dylan Fitzgibbon, Luke Woods, Neil Ernest, Matt Cadle, and Graham Patterson.

The Norwegian and Swedish teams were of a really high standard and the IV degree patterns final was breathtaking between Norway’s Team East’s Andreas Jenstad narrowly beating Ireland’s Hong Looi with a number of drawn results before a winner was decided.

Sparring events were run in a league system giving each competitor a number of bouts before moving into the eliminations. Again the standard was magnificent, complemented by a high standard of the umpires.

The Irish competitors worked hard to gain gold in all but one male sparring division, Luke Woods beating Matt Cadle in the -65kg division, Stephen Ryan gold in -71kg group, Darren Smith gold in -80kg section from Neil Ernest who had to withdraw due to injury.

Darren Smith took gold in male power and Sweden’s Markus Kanngard winning the special technique section.

Darren Smith won best overall competitor.

The INTA would like to thank all the competitors, particularly those who travelled from abroad and the umpires and helpers who made this a great event.