Ashbourne Judo Club once again hosted the East of Ireland championships on the 27th April. There were 13 clubs represented on the day including one from the U.K. Westcroft Judo Club. There were many familiar faces from last year and plenty of new clubs to Ashbourne showing a healthy increase in entries from last year

First up were the -25 boys with Adam Collison of Black Eagle who was in fine form taking gold. Next one of the best groups of the day the -28 boys with Eoin Flynn of Ashbourne storming to gold with 4 Ippons each in less than 30 seconds, James Grouse of St. Josephs took silver.

Meanwhile on Mat One the junior girls were in action with Erin McGinnity of Cavan getting gold in the -25’s and in their first competition twin sisters Sinead and Aoife Bolger-Yale taking silver and bronze. Next in the -28’s Kayleigh Coleman of Black Eagle took gold in a trend which had Black Eagle dominate the junior events getting a total of 5 Gold medals and numerous silver and bronzes.

In the boys -31 event Warren Reilly of Cavan took the honours and leading a club charge fellow club members took silver and both bronzes as well. The boys -37 and -45 events provided the 2 biggest groups of the day and 3 of the contenders for Junior Player of the Day in Christian Milotte (-37) Brett Milotte and Edgaras Milevicius (-45), the other 2 contenders were Eoin Flynn (-28’s) and Andrew Flynn (-50’s). The trophy went to Christian Milotte of Westcroft Judo Club who also took gold in the -37 event with some wonderful displays and Brendan Mullen of Ippon Sambo/Judo got the silver.

The girls event continued on Mat One with Anfisa Speranskey of DSJ dominating the -36 taking gold and Junior Female Player of the Day with Black Eagle sharing the rest of the honours in the group.

Newcomers to Ashbourne Castleblayney Judo Club took gold and silver in the +57’s with Vaida Visinskaite and Viktorija Gudauskaite.

In the men’s event Colin Kiernan of Rosmini continued his domination winning 3 golds in the -90, open and upper kyu although he was pushed hard, as ever, by David Kane in the open and upper kyu. In the +90 category Jason Fitzpatrick of Ashbourne was the surprise of the day beating Cyrille and Morgan Kergot of NUIM with a powerful display getting gold and senior Male Player of the Day.

This was a great day for Ashbourne Judo Club who benefited from home advantage and overall dominated the day’s events with 6 golds and a total medal haul of 18 plus Senior Male and Female Players of the Day in Jason Fitzpatrick and Claire O’Brian.

A great days judo was had by all in good humour and enthusiasm and a special word of thanks to all who helped out by refereeing, doing tables and all the other unsung jobs with patience and dedication without which these competitions could not run.

Over 100 competitors, teachers, parents & coaches, travelled from 18 schools throughout Ireland to celebrate this years School’s Spring Judo Championships.

Having spent several years rebuilding the once invincible CBS Synge St. judo team, P.E. teacher & judo coach Mr. Barry Finn, finally recaptured the ‘Most Successful School’ Plaque, which had eluded them in recent years. They did this in emphatic manner winning 5 Gold, 3 Silver & 7 Bronze Medals at this tough & highly competitive tournament.

They dominated the Junior Boys section winning 4 Gold’s with Greg Moorehouse U45, Sandeep Guantam U55, Dean Delaney U60 & Derek Kelly Open. Derek had a terrific day only losing out in the Heavyweight division to ‘Junior Male Player of the Day’ Bogdan Tsukanov, St. Josephs, Fairview & then to regain his form & beat Bogdan with a superb Ippon in the Open final. Marc Coffey, Senior U60 was in terrific form to win his final defeating a very tough opponent in Ashbourne’s Shane O’Brien, who had defeated the category red-hot favourite Carl Gallagher, Coolmine by Ippon in the semi-final.

Reigning champions Coolmine Community College had to settle for runners-up spot this time, but still had some tremendous displays, with ‘Senior Player Male of the Day’ James McKeon taking the U81 & Open categories. His younger brother, Conor defeated Blackrock College’s Matthew Healy to take the Junior U73 title, while Oisín O’Neill defeated Castleknock Community College’s Seán Smyth to win the very competitive Senior U73 title.

Castleknock’s Danielle Mongey had a fantastic day, totally dominating the largest Senior Girl’s category, U57kg & Open. She was on fire & felt she could defeat anyone on the day & did! She won all her fights by Ippon & deservedly won ‘Senior Female Player of the Day’. After having to accept runners-up place for so many years, Danni really deserved her success & proved a very popular recipient of her accolade.

Ratoath College’s Kelly Smith won 3 tough fight’s including a bruising encounter with Lismullan’s Ali Cherry, to win the Junior U48kg & ‘Junior Female Player of the Day title. It was Kelly’s first judo competition, but with both parents’ exceptional judo players from the recent past, it was no surprise that she would pull through. Eddie & Annette can be justifiably proud of their daughter.

Moville Community College, Donegal made the long trip south with a strong team & didn’t leave empty-handed. School coach, Seamus Gallagher was can be proud of his charges who took home a haul of 1 Gold, 4 Silver & 7 Bronze medals. Star player, Laura Bonner took Gold & 2 Silver. Although quite a novice team, I have no doubt we will see a lot more of them in the near future as they get more experience.

Hartstown brothers Adam & Luke Kelly took a haul of 2 Gold & 1 Bronze. While Luke retained his U66 Junior title & took 3rd place in the Junior Open, Adam won his first Junior school’s title at U41.

Ever competitive, Ashbourne Community College took 2 Gold in the seniors, with Lisa Egan U63 & Liam Hughes U90, to go with a Silver & 2 Bronze. Polish born Alexandra Radomska, Ballinteer Community College, defeated Moville’s Laura Bonner to take the junior +57 title, while Zahaira Esmau, Mount Temple took bronze.

Kaylee Cherry, Loreto Navan took silver in the Senior Open & bronze in U57, Shane Quigley, Árd Scoil Rís, took bronze at U81. Luke McCabe St. Marys Ballgar took silver in the senior U90 back to Galway, while Lauren Hill won bronze at Senior U63 for Wesley College.

All had a super day of judo, and it was all thanks to the hard work & support of the staff & students of CBS Synge St. who made it all possible.

Alan Martin
Tournament Director

Over 150 contestants from all over Ireland turned up in Ashbourne Community Centre for this year’s All Ireland Judo Championships. Despite the fact the due to weather & safety reasons this year’s championships had to be deferred for 3 weeks, all provinces & all Judo Associations were represented at this the largest All Irelands in more than 20 years.

For the first time in many years no one club won more than one senior title, with Gold Medals going to David Kane Dublin School of Judo U-60kg, Hubert Creaven Annaghdown U66kg, Anthony Guinan DCU U73kg, Desmond McKenna Dublin School of Judo U81kg, Scott Mayne Murakwai U90kg, David Frahill Kyouto U100kg & David Karansky Portmarnock +100kg. It was also terrific to see that not only was the volume of entry up, but also the competitive standard, with some incredible ippons.

Annaghdown, Galway, once again had an incredible day taking 9 Gold, 4 Silver & 3 Bronze medals at Minor, Junior & Senior level. Their star performer had to be Hubert Creaven who moved up to senior level & won 5 tough fights to take the Men’s U66kg title.

Murakwai, Belfast, came a close second in the overall standings with coach Scott Mayne taking the Senior Men’s U90kg title. Kristy Kee also put in a superb performance to win at both Women’s & U16 years U52kg, being the only double Gold-medallist at this years All-Irelands.

Kyouto Judo Club, Cork under the coaching of Sarah McGillacuddy & Anthony Cotter, took 2 Gold with Jana Sophie Franz in Women’s U63kg & David Frahill Men’s U100kg, while Sandyford Judo Club under the guidance of Czech-born coach Pavla Handlirova took the lightest weights in both minor boys & girls. Obviously a club to watch out for in the future.

Portmarnock Judo Club from north Dublin took 3 Gold & 2 bronze, with David Karansky winning the Mens +100kg & Bearach Gleeson U31kg & James Fisher U41kg in the Minor boys. James won the largest category of the day, having to win 7 matches to be crowned All-Ireland champion.

Ippon Judo Club, Roscommon & Tuam took 3 titles in the minor competition, with Brendan Mullen at U37kg & sisters Roisin Godwin U40kg & Fionnuala Godwin U52kg. Ciarán Weldon, Renmore won at minor U24kg, while his clubmate Abdul Momah took the U50kg title.

Maynooth Judo Club took their first All-Ireland title when Tony Vaniukevich defeated his twin Steven to win at U22kg, while their brother Richard lost the U25kg final to Glen Osborne, St. Josephs, Fairview. Cavan’s sole gold went to Edgaras Milevicius at Junior U45kg, 3 silver went to Warren Reilly U28kg, Mantis Gargutus U41kg & Avena Moran U33kg, while Joe Moore took bronze in the very competitive Men’s U666kg.

Anthony Guinan, DCU, won the men’s U73kg & Desmond McKenna, Dublin School of Judo took Gold at Men’s U81kg. NUIM took 2 bronze medals with Niall Tiernay & Ciarán Gallagher.

Black Eagle School of Judo, which operates out of several venues in the north Tipperary area, under the guidance of former Irish International, James Mulroy had a very credible first All-Irelands, with Ciarán Mulroy taking silver at Junior U45kg & Joseph O’Neill & Laurence Day winning bronze.