CMAP Awards Winners – Part IV

Over the last 3 weeks, the winners of each category of the CMAP 2013 awards have been announced on the Evening Echo. Cork Martial Arts Promotions is a non profit organization aimed at recognizing excellence within martial arts in Cork based clubs and gyms. This week, the final two categories are the adult male and female competitors of the year.

The CMAP female competitor of the year award goes to Orla O’Brien of Bushido Martial Arts under coach Colin O’Shaughnessy. Orla is a 59Kgs Kickboxer who had a tremendous year of full contact fights culminating in a bronze medal at the WAKO World Championships in Turkey. She was also awarded the Evening Echo Female Sportsperson for December.

The CMAP male competitor of the Year is Dylan Fitzgibbon of Turners Cross taekwondo under coach Ken Leahy. Dylan captured his third World title this year in his first year as a senior and also helped other fighters to gold in his coaching capacity. Dylan, along with his brother John, runs Elite Martial Arts Academy (EMAA) in Douglas.

The other 6 awards were Master Pat Barry of North Mon Taekwondo (Coach of the Year), Martin Horgan of Siam Warriors (Hall of Fame inductee), Anthony Corkery of Cork Thai (Lifetime Achievement Award), the MMA Clinic Cork (Club of the Year), Emma Finnegan of Coachford taekwondo/kickboxing (Junior female competitor) and John McAteer of West Cork Kickboxing (Junior male competitor).

The Awards ceremony takes place this Saturday February 1^st at the Gresham Metropole Hotel where each winner will be presented with a CMAP trophy and a highlight video of their year will be displayed for the audience.

Everyone is welcome to attend the awards night. It’s free of charge but tickets must be pre-booked through www.cmap.ie

Nomination for CMAP Awards closing soon!

Cork Martial Arts Promotions (CMAP) is the brainchild of Leonard Coughlan, a Taekwondo instructor who teaches in Bandon and Mahon. His goal is to help cork based martial arts clubs and gyms to promote their achievements and highlight the hard work they put in throughout the year. Due to the many styles and different organisations of martial arts, it can be confusing for people to follow and quite often, huge achievements go unrecognized by mainstream sports fans. Because CMAP is purely a Martial Arts promotion, it can take the time to attend various tournaments and events, visit gyms and clubs and keep tabs on what’s happening in the combat community.

Since 2009, CMAP has hosted a martial arts display at the Cork Summer show every year, bringing demonstrations from lesser-known martial arts such as Kendo, Tai Chi, Capoeira and Kung Fu as well as the usual suspects like Muay Thai, Karate, Kickboxing and Taekwondo to enthralled spectators. By presenting the various styles side by side as one large community, the overall display is very professional and audiences are entertained throughout the day. As individual groups, the same level of exposure would be very difficult, especially for the more niche arts. This year, CMAP will play a huge role in helping with the Cork Martial Arts Expo in Neptune Stadium on February 9^th, which will see a full day of demonstrations, tournaments, competitive fights and workshops as well as merchandise stands for various martial arts equipment and supplies.

Last year, the inaugural CMAP Awards Ceremony was held at the Gresham Metropole Hotel. A number of categories including Club of the year, Male/Female Competitors of the year, Junior Competitor of the year, Lifetime achievement award and coach of the year were presented. There was also an inductee to the CMAP Hall of Fame. The top athletes in the county represented various styles such as Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Karate and Kickboxing.

On February 1^st, the awards for 2013 will be presented. All the same categories are being contested and this year, Leonard hopes to cast the net over a wider range of styles. Nominations are being accepted up to the end of this week so if you’re part of a club/gym that you feel should be recognized for its achievements, visit www.CMAP.ie and submit your recommendations.