Glebe club claims four NI titles and a host of medals

GLEBE Kickboxing & K1 club excelled at the recent WKU Northern Ireland Open where they returned with a stunning haul of four titles, four silver medals and two bronze.

The collection of silverware was impressive generally, but considering the club is still in its infancy and this was its first representation at the Northern Ireland Open, the success is all the more remarkable.

One of the highlights of the day was the Northern Ireland Open gold medal success of Dennis Lafferty.

The Lifford man enjoyed a good amateur boxing career, but until the end of last year had never even sparred in kickboxing.

That changed before Christmas last year when he was drafted in to help members with their hands. While there, club founders, Dee McIntyre and Mickey Coyle offered Lafferty the chance to join in with training and he enjoyed it so much he decided to give the sport a chance.

“I started by helping the guys with their hands around Christmas time and he asked me if I wanted to come in to do a bit of training, so I said ‘aye’,” Lafferty explained.

“From there I started doing a bit of kicking and stuff and I enjoyed it.

“It’s completely different to boxing. It’s like starting all over again, it’s a different ball game.”

While he’s still learning the sport, Lafferty admits that his boxing skills definitely helped him reach the final, but when taking on someone of the quality of Danny Wade in a tough decider, he had to be more alert!

“My hands helped a bit,” he acknowledged. “I stopped a guy in the semi-final but the guy in the final is an ex-European Champion or something and a junior World Championship medalist, so he was very good with his kicks.

“I had to keep an eye on his feet because he was handy with them!”
Lafferty has now qualified for the World Championships and he knows he needs to improve dramatically before that competition.

“I’ve qualified for the World Championships in Wales now so I’ll work on my kicks now. They’re coming on well now, but I’ve still got a bit of work to do,” he explained.

Lafferty wasn’t the only Glebe club man to achieve success at the NI Open, with juniors, Kayden Cooper, Brodie McIntyre (gold at under-35 kilos), Pol Wilson (gold) and Darragh McLaughlin all achieving success, while in the senior ranks, joining Lafferty in the medals were Conall Donnelly (bronze), Ronan Ellis (silver), Adam McGinn (silver) and Gavin Rouse (silver).

Meanwhile, the club’s heavyweights, Simon Petraitis and Oisin McGranaghan were also in action and very nearly had to go toe-to-toe for the gold medal.

“We had two heavyweights from our club who were registered and one, Simon Petraitis, had to fight a semi-final, which he won but he broke his foot so he couldn’t fight in the final so Oisin McGranaghan got the gold,” explained one of the club’s two founders, Dee McIntyre, who along with Mickey Coyle has laid the foundations for more success to follow.

Overall, McIntyre and Coyle were over the moon with the achievements of all his fighters, who exceeded his own expectations on the day.

“We did well!,” beamed Dee. “We had 11 fighters, 10 won medals, four gold, four silver and two bronze.

“We probably should have turned a few of those silvers into gold, we were close, definitely, we were close.

But if you’d offered me 10 medals going into it, I’d definitely have taken it. For a new club, I don’t think anyone expected it.

“That was only our second competition. We fought last year at a show in Derry and we did very well in it too, so we’re building a good name for ourselves.”

Club members are now preparing for two ISKA events in Derry between now and April. Anyone interested in getting involved can contact the club via Facebook.