Sport

Tralee Academy Wins Haul Of Medals At Martial Arts World Championships

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Winners of WMO World Championship medals from Alan Guilfoyle’s (at back) Black Belt Martial Arts Academy in Pembroke Street, Tralee. Front from left; Ciara Frampton, Isabel Shaw and Katelyn Diggins. Back; Sean Sookarry, Sinead Frampton, Emily Keane, Ally Guilfoyle. Photo by Dermot Crean

A TRALEE martial arts academy had a very successful trip to Portugal last week where they won 19 medals and four world titles.

The WMO Martial Arts world championships were held in sunny Albufeira and members of the Black Belt Martial Arts Academy were part of Team Ireland at the event.

Of the Tralee group, Isabel Shaw won three world titles and Ally Guilfoyle took one, but the others — Ciara Frampton, Sinead Frampton, Katelyn Diggins, Sean Sookarry and Emily Keane — won a range of medals in different disciplines.

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Alan Guilfoyle, who runs the academy from their Pembroke Street base, said students have won many national, European and world titles over the years since he founded it.

There’s between 20 and 30 students studying under Alan and his daughter Ally and Alan said he was very proud of the achievements of the group.

“The discipline and confidence these guys have is amazing because of martial arts. They were training for 15 hours a week coming up to the event and came up against competitors from academies in Europe, USA, Canada, South Africa, all over the world.”