Taekwon-do is traditionally very strong in Cork with dozens of clubs across the city and county. In the 70’s & 80’s, as a Leeside youngster, you often had to choose between Boxing, Karate, Judo or Taekwon-do if you wanted to be a martial arts fighter. A whole generation spurred on by the fame of action film starts like Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jeff Speakman and Cynthia Rothrock set the ball rolling for Cork’s love affair with the martial arts.
A series of films from 1989 onwards entitled “Best of the Best” heavily featured the art of Taekwon-do and was no doubt partly responsible for the continuing growing popularity of the style. In the year 2000, it also became an official Olympic sport, spreading spectator knowledge of the style still further.
Nowadays in Cork, we are witness to the third generation of martial arts influence. While other styles such as Muay Thai, MMA, Kickboxing, BJJ, Krav Maga, Aikido, Caopeira, Kendo and Kung Fu have added to the choices available to today’s budding ninjas, Taekwon-do is still going strong.
A young 20-year-old man by the name of Dylan Fitzgibbon is part of this current generation of Taekwon-do athletes. He trains under the tutelage of Mr Ken Leahy at Turners Cross Taekwon-do Club who himself was recently promoted to 6th Degree Black Belt under Master Brendan O’Toole. Dylan has distinguished himself amongst his peers this year by winning his 3rd consecutive ITF Taekwon-do World title. Having picked up junior World titles in Argentina in 2009 and New Zealand in 2011, Dylan made the transition to the senior ranks in 2013 to capture the -70Kgs title in Spain. This is a huge step up in competition. Moving from Junior to Senior often means young champions are relegated to non-medal positions for a few years until they become strong enough to compete with the seasoned adults. Not so for young Cork man who aggressively marked out his territory winning not only the World title, but also a gold in the team event and the European title earlier in the year.
In a tactical move, Dylan competed in his first senior division early in 2013 in a weight class higher than his own. While gathering valuable experience with the older competitors, he offered none in return to his would-be rivals in his own weight class so when it came time for him to perform, he was still somewhat of an enigma to the other fighters in his division.
This past weekend, Dylan attended the Dutch Open with the Irish team, albeit in a coaching capacity. Injury sidelined him from competing on this occasion. A selection of Cork fighters was on the team from clubs such as North Mon TKD under Master Pat Barry and Mallow TKD under Master Mark Buckley. One of the fighters that Dylan coached was Dubliner Colm Carroll who finally won Gold in the -68Kg division after many times being a bronze medalist. Obviously, having a champion in your corner has to rub off a bit.
For 2014, the Corkman hopes to defend his titles in the European and World Championships in Italy and Jamaica respectively. Speaking to Dylan, he reminded me that athletes competing in World and European TKD events from Ireland don’t receive any government funding and fighters rely heavily on their own savings or the generosity of sponsors when possible so if any businesses or individual want to sponsor his 2014 missions, you can find him through the Facebook page for Turners Cross Taekwon-do Club or indeed the new Academy in Douglas which he has set up with his brother John Fitzgibbon called Elite Martial Arts Academy (EMAACork).
Liam-Og Griffin 