Bailie wins Junior Open
30th November 2005by David Brashaw
The listing was posted by Mizukara
Bangor teenager Neil Bailie toped of a brilliant weekend of karate yesterday (Sunday) at the North of Ireland Open Championship held in the Ballysillan Leisure Centre. After losing out recently in the final of the Carlow International to a great Romanian fighter, Neil proved once again he has what it takes to be a world karate star by beating top English fighter, G Raryah in the final of the under 16 event. National coach Jeff Hills commented “Neil is currently training with the Northern Ireland squad for the Junior World Championships in Hungary next October and, as this result proves, progressing extremely well.” Jeff himself, after a very bruising final, claimed gold in the senior men’s fighting. Like Neil, Jeff will build on this result to compete in the Senior Europeans next June.
Other Northern Ireland juniors also achieved great results. The SKU team from Strabane; C Dullaghan, C McNulty and S Gallagher not only won the Under 16 year’s team kata, but also made it a clean sweep in the individual kata event for the first three places.
Brother and sister team John and Leona McFadden from L/Derry also proved their international class by lifting gold in their respective senior kata events. Northern Ireland Kata coach David Brashaw added “This was a great display by both John and Leona, which will subsequently inspire many of the students from the North West of the province.
World bronze medallist Sonia Ferris, from Newcastle once again showed her excellent fighting ability by claiming silver in the senior ladies kumite losing out narrowly to Katherine Gillespie from L/Derry.
The event, which was supported by Belfast City Council saw 400 competitors from all over Ireland and England compete in twenty eight events. Medalists had the added bonus of receiving their prizes from local world karate champions Cathy McAleer and David Brashaw. Cathy added “This was a superb tournament run by the Ulster Karate Council. It really demonstrated the quality of our competitors, the professional management of events and the great hospitality Northern Ireland has to offer.”