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Dublin School’s Team Judo Championships 2008

Pobalscoil Rosmini, Grace Park Road, Dublin 9.

11th May 2008.

Blackrock College come of age!

After missing out on reaching the final of the Junior Championships for the past 2 years, Blackrock College finally came of age winning 5 gruelling matches to take the Dublin School’s Team Judo Championships for the very first time. Not since they won the senior title in 2002, have Blackrock been in a Judo team Championship final. Led by captain, Pierce Dargan, they hammered Plunket College A Team 4:1 in their first pool match. They followed on with a whitewash of St. Michaels College B team 5:0 in the next match, winning all matches by Ippon. Finally they defeated Hartstown Community School 4:1 in their final pool match to set up a semi-final match with last year’s champions Coolmine Community College. At the same time Plunket A found their form & beat both St. Michaels B & Hartstown to reach the other semi-final against St. Michaels College A team, who had won the other pool.

Blackrock had a tough match in the semis, just winning out 3:2 in the 5th & final match They started well with David Boyce & captain Pierce Dargan winning by Ippon, then Coolmine’s Gary Byrne & Keith Rogers pulled 2 back defeating Ben O’Beirne & Justin Murphy. In the final match, Cormac Maguire defeated Conor McKeon in a very close battle that could have gone either way. In the other semi-final, Plunket A really peaked, defeating St. Michaels A 4:1 to reach the final & a re-match with Blackrock. However Blackrock had saved their best till last, bringing on super-sub Joseph Lawlor who completely outplayed Robbie Kenna to win the first match. After that the floodgates opened & Blackrock cruised to a 5:0 emphatic victory.

In the Senior category, Coolmine set out their stall early in a bid to retain the title they won last year for the first time. In their first match they met the very strong Ashbourne Community College, with Carl Gallagher, Coolmine defeating his old rival Shane O’Brien in the first match. However, Ashbourne fought back taking the next 2 bouts, with James Gorman & Conor Murphy defeating Keith Rogers & Kevin Kirwan. Oisín O’Neill levelled the score for Coolmine, before James McKeown defeated Liam Hughes to take Coolmine into the final with hosts Rosmini. Here Coolmine really picked up their game, winning the first 4 bouts before Rosmini captain pulled one back, defeating James McKeown in the final match of the day. Coolmine were once again crowned Dublin Schools Senior Judo Team Champions.

Once again Castleknock Community College retained their crown in the Young Women’s event, with team captain Christina Kelly, Ute Greene & Danielle Mongey all winning their matches by Ippon. The rampant Castleknock who were determined to retain their title, have now become the first school to win 4 titles in a row.

A special word of thanks must go to Ivan O’Callaghan & the staff of Pobalscoil Rosmini who made their school available to all of us on the day.

Alan Martin
Tournament Director

Download Results (Pdf 13.13 Kb)