Like Children on Christmas day, the moment has finally arrived for our Irish kickboxers. The opening ceremony and start of competition. The opening ceremony was low key but swift affair, only taking half and hour. As stated yesterday, there are ten Irish fighters were in action with results and reports below.
| Discipline | Gender | Weight | Time | Irish Fighter | Opponent | Nation | Next up | RND |
| Points | Female | 50 KG | 12:00:00 | Bo Mangan | Ekaterina Khomova | RUS | Sharon Gill (GBR) | QF |
| L-Contact | Female | 60 KG | 12:33:00 | Aine Leonard | Sophia Greiser | GER | Paulina Jarmizk (POL) | QF |
| Points | Female | 55 KG | 12:56:00 | Sinéad Beasley | Evgenia Poletoya | RUS | Tina Koder (SLO) | QF |
| Points | Male | 69 KG | 15:02:00 | Dessie Leonard | Antonio La Prete | ITA | Ernesto Burke (NED) | QF |
| L-Contact | Male Vet | PLUS 94 KG | 15:51:00 | Liam Dale | Mikael Backstrom | SWE | Nicola Bertolotti (ITA) | SF |
What a day for Ireland’s five winners. Bo Mangan started things off with a great win Ekatherina Khomova to earn a re-match with her rival Sharon Gill from Great Britain. She was beaten by her in the worlds last year and is hopeful for revenge. Bo had to deal with a 31 minute delay as the ambulance was slow in arriving in the ground. This is not the fault of WAKO, as they correctly state that the ambulances must be present at all times. Here is Bo’s reaction to her win.
Her fight is here:
The Leonard siblings of Aine & Desmond from Cooloney, Co. Sligo had very comfortable wins against Amanda Grier & Antonio la Prete respectively. They both to this eye look to be gifted, technically proficient and very light on their feet. They are trained by their father, the legendary Desmond senior, who is also part of the Irish coaching party. Both are expected to go far, even though this is Áine’s first international senior event, stepping up from the Juniors at 19 years of age. Check out their interviews afterwards.
Here are their fights:
Aine: http://youtu.be/R0Jm1xX0AD4
Desmond:
Sinéad Beasley had a comfortable win against Evgenia Poletoya, which unfortunately we did not get to see. We hear Sinéad is a star and we will be looking for her progress throughout the tournament, while she competes in both the points and light contact. The win of the day has to go to Liam Dale, the Veterans class, in his bruising match against Sweden’s Michael Backstrom. To say that they threw the kitchen sink and bath tub at each other would be an understatement. Both came forward at every opportunity and in the end, it was a split decision the way of the Irishman. Check his reaction after.
While his fight can be found here.
| Discipline | Gender | Weight | Time | Irish Fighter | Opponent | Nation |
| Points | Female | 65 KG | 13:10:00 | Claire Brennan | Paulina Jarznik | POL |
| L-Contact | Male | 63 KG | 13:22:00 | Jamie Skilton | Damiano Tramontana | ITA |
| Points | Male | 63 KG | 14:20:00 | Simon McDonnell | Bartosz Baczynski | POL |
| L-Contact | Male Vet | 94 KG | 15:18:00 | Martin Bannon | Leszek Jobs | POL |
| Points | Male | PLUS 94 KG | 15:58:00 | Colm O’Shaugnessy | Gunther Wohlweld | LIE |
Unfortunately we had five fighters who did not make it past the first round. Claire Brennan’s height disadvantage was exploited by her tall quick Polska opponent. Jamie Skilton was unfortunate in his split points decision against his Italian opponent.
Simon McDonnell was beaten by a technically gifted polish fighter in Bartosz Baczynski.
Martin Bannon lost a split decision in a great match with Leszek Jobs, while Colm O’Shaugnessy was beaten by a quick, and powerful Gunther WohlWeld. Jamie Skilton was good enough to talk to us after.
The unfortunate thing for all these fighters is that they get one shot at this. They have all trained for many months, and have ten minutes to progress. It is without favour or compromise, and can be brutal and disappointing for the athlete when things don’t go to plan. Having said that,they are facing the cream of Europe, with standards precise and exacting
Here are the pairings for tomorrow, 19/11/2014, in which Irish fighters will be involved in 21 matches, which could be 24 if other results go to plan.
| Discipline | Gender | Weight | Time | Irish Fighter | Opponent | Nation |
| POINTS | Male VET | PLUS 94 KG | 10:00 | Paul Coffey | Mercier Stephanie | FRA |
| POINTS | Female | minus50 KG | 11:10 | Bo Managan | Sharon Gill | GBR |
| L-CONTACT | Male | 69KG | 11:30 | Desmond Leonard | Remo Maithieu | SUI |
| POINTS | Female | 70KG | 11:52 | Elaine Small | Henrietta Nagay | HUN |
| L-CONTACT | Male | 84KG | 12:00 | Eric Melhorn | paul Grabner | AUS |
| POINTS | Female | 50 KG | 12:20 | Sinéad Beasley | Tina Koder | SLO |
| POINTS | Female | PLUS70KG | 12:34 | Denise Dempsey | Gayle Morgan | GBR |
| k-Light | Female | 65KG | 13:15 | Deirdre Begley | Monika Kedzierska | POL |
| POINTS | Female | 60 KG | 13:30 | Sharon Bannon | Mercedes Veres | HUN |
| L-CONTACT | Female | 60KG | 13:30 | Aine Leonard | Pauline Jarznik | POL |
| POINTS | Male | 57KG | 13:44 | Robert Hurley | Vincenzo Biliadi | ITA |
| POINTS | Male | 84KG | 13:58 | Kevin White | Michael Lampert | LIE |
| L-CONTACT | Male Vet | 89KG | 14:00 | Bernard Brady | Dragan Robota | BIH |
| POINTS | Male | 69 KG | 14:40 | Desmond Leonard | Ernesto Burke | NED |
| POINTS | Male | 89KG | 15:22 | Gary Ryan | Giuseppe Zebro | ITA |
| POINTS | Male | 74KG | 15:36 | Mark McDermott | Pavlo Zamiati | UKR |
| L-CONTACT | Female | 55KG | 16:00 | Sinéad Beasley | Ayse Ates | TUR |
| POINTS | Male | 94KG | 16:04 | Kevin Bowles | Tom Banks | GBR |
| POINTS | Male | 79KG | 17:14 | Dean Barry | Alex Veres | HUN |
| L-CONTACT | Female | PLUS 70KG | 17:15 | Diana Campbell | Anastasia Solodkova | RUS |
| L-CONTACT | Female | 65KG | 17:30 | Deirdre Begley | No Opponent | None |
| L-CONTACT | Male | 94KG | 17:45 | Colm Shaugnessy | Broche Slyvain | FRA |
We are going to be excited to see all the Irish fighters tomorrow, and are waiting for as much the unseen fighters to this points, as the ones we saw yesterday in Bo Mangan, Sinéad Beasley, Colm Shaugnessy, Áine and Des Leonard. Needless to say we will bring reports on all the Irish fighters tomorrow.
Will the real James Skilton please stand up?
We had an amazing occurrence when James Skilton, fighting for Ireland, met James Skilton, fighting for Great Britain. Both are 63KG. To further complicate matters, James from Ireland is originally from England,and moved to Ireland 10 years ago.
The difference is James from Ireland is fighting light contact, and James from Great Britain is fighting points. We at Sportsnut-Irish have tried to arrange a no hold barred match outside the tournament,to prove who is the real Jamie Skilton, but the lads have wisely resisted our promptings. Here they are just to prove they are not the same person.
Sportsnut-Irish 