Five five-star performances from Red Star

FIVE members of a Northside kickboxing club had the privilege to represent Ireland at the recent WAKO Junior and Cadet World Championships in Rimini, Italy.

Brendan Kenny, Lauren Bradshaw, Eliza Bluma, Robbie Walsh and Samy Lamari, who all train out of Jon Mackey’s Red Star Kickboxing gym on the Ballyboggan Road in Dublin 11, were all chosen to attend the championships after meeting strict criteria set down by Kickboxing Ireland.

All five won the national championships in their respective weight categories earlier this year and in Italy they faced stiff opposition from the very best junior kickboxers in the world today.
This year’s tournament broke WAKO records as over 6o countries and 2,500 athletes attended to fight for the coveted title of WAKO World Champion.

Eliza Bluma in the -50kg division was the first of Red Star’s cadet fighters to take to the mats. She was drawn against a Polish fighter for her first fight, who she beat in fine style with skilful lead leg and boxing combinations.

Unfortunately she was beaten in the next round against a much tougher and heavier Slovakian. However, she impressed greatly in what was her first major international event.

Next up for Red Star was 15-year-old Robbie Walsh in the -52kg cadet division. He was placed against a Bulgarian in his opening bout and took a clean win, out-pointing his opponent with tidy hand work.

Robbie went into the last eight to face Russia but eventually lost out to the winner of the group.
Red Star’s most decorated international fighter was up next. Lauren Bradshaw drew a Russian in the +70kg junior division. In fine style she demolished her opponent in three easy rounds, landing her a rematch against Ela Filipovic, then current WAKO World Champion.

Lauren and Ela fought in the WAKO European championships in 2013 when the Cabra girl won by split decision. This time round it was the Croatian who took the victory.
Lauren finished the tournament in third place, earning herself a WAKO World bronze medal to add to her European gold of last year.

Samy Lamari came on board Red Star from Elite TKD under Master Terry Donnelly and competed in the -79kg junior division. He was drawn against Britain for his first fight and was unfortunately outpointed over three rounds.

He gave a good account of himself in what was his first WAKO international, fighting his opponent tooth and nail but the British lad was just too sharp on the day.

Last up for Red Star was Brendan Kenny who fought in the -79kg junior division. Brendan was one of Ireland’s favourites to reach a WAKO final and he didn’t disappoint.

He drew a Croatian in the first round, a fight he completely dominated taking a 3-0 unanimous decision. In the last eight he drew a very stylish Italian fighter, but stopped him with a perfectly timed switch back kick.

In the quarter final Brendan faced a Russian fighter, winning by a split decision in what was a close bout.

This led Brendan smack bang into a WAKO World final, where he drew a second Russian fighter. On finals day he took to the centre ring very composed and confident, and rightly so as he had been on fire throughout the tournament.

However, to the dismay of the Red Star corner some of Brendan’s very clean combinations weren’t scored while some of the Russian’s combinations under pressure were.
This put Brendan behind after the first round. In the second round tactics were pushed a bit stronger and he managed to pull back, even after a clean head kick wasn’t scored.

The fight remained close in the third round and with 20 seconds left Brendan went ahead by one judge. However, in the last 10 seconds, the Russian scored leaving Brendan to chase a head kick which wasn’t to happen.

It was a cruel split decision in favour of Russia. Brendan and the Red Star coaching team were shocked, but the win went to Russia and he had to settle for a WAKO silver medal.

Red Star’s success at what was an incredibly hard tournament highlighted the gym as one of the most formidable in Dublin. Its success in Italy is in addition to the many other Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing titles, both world and European, that reside at the club.