On Saturday the 5th of February, the Irish Taekwon-Do Association winter black belt grading took place in Cork. This grading had been organized to facilitate the students of some of the new clubs who had their black belt grading cancelled in December due to adverse weather conditions. The examination was hosted by Mr. Wayne Delea in his Togher School of Taekwon-Do and Mr. Delea had a super-efficient team to organize this event. From early morning Mr. Delea had his team working and they had everything organized and ready from mats for the candidates to pens for the examiners before the grading commenced.

The panel of examiners was led by Master Kenneth Wheatley 7th Dan, president of the Irish Taekwon-Do Association and included Mr. Paul Delea 6th Dan, Mr. Stephen Cooley 6th Dan, Mr. Mark Buckley 6th Dan and Mr. Ken Leahy 5th Dan. Narrator for the day was MissOlwyne Lewis of Togher School of Taekwon-Do.

Starting with traditional hand techniques the candidates moved up and down the floor to the commands of narrator Miss Olwyne Lewis, who did a fantastic job and each and every command clear and precise. There were three groups on the day and one by one they completed hand and foot techniques followed by patterns, step sparring, self-defense and free sparring. A little break was then the order of the day and as the examiners stretched their legs and the candidates prepared for free sparring or in the case of the first degree black belts, two on one sparring. Following the free sparring the candidate lined up for special technique, power and theory where they again were put through the rigors of the panel.

In total 13 candidates presented for testing, and, after a rigorous process 10 students were successfully promoted. We would like to congratulate the candidates who were successful on this occasion and encourage those who were not to persevere with their training, bearing in mind that June 2011 is not too far away.

A special thank you must go to Mr. Wayne Delea and his team for a professional layout and spread, which made for a very comfortable environment for both examiners and candidates. The hard work and efforts of his team has raised the bar for standards in grading venues going forward.

List of those promoted

1. GerO'Mahony II Dan
2. Nicole O'Donavan II Dan
3. Peter Golden I Dan
4. Alan Donnelly I Dan
5. Luke Foley I Dan
6. Philip O' Gorman I Dan
7. Seamus Lehane I Dan
8. Conor Hanlon I Dan
9. Emmet O'Connor I Dan
10. Deborah Keary I Dan

Photos of the event can be found by following this link https://picasaweb.google.com/IrishTKD/2011ITABlackBeltGradingCork#