A.I.M.A.A IRELAND NATIONALS

Master  Kirkwood and his National Squad flew into Dublin for a 2 day International event at the A.L.S.A.A Sports Complex, Dublin Airport.

The event as usual was fantastically organised and the competition over the two days was awesome. The squad from Scotland was Master John Kirkwood, Mr John Kirkwood Jnr, Billy Reid, Ceila Gough, Alan Johnston, Paul McCartney, Eddie Kerr, Kirsty Gough, Kara Gough, Jack Reid, Mark Russell, Kayley Russell, Tammy Sutherland, Adam Kerr, Jack Denholm, Adam Wilmot, Ashley Wilmot, Max Wilson.   The event kick started off on the Saturday with the continuous sparring and destruction categories.

The first day was hard with some serious contact in the continuous sparring divisions. Master Kirkwood fought in the -80kg category, which had some pretty good young fighters within it. The final took place after three bouts and with Master Kirkwood fighting Ritchie in the final, which was 2 x 2 minute rounds, which saw Master Kirkwood take the Gold and the National Title.

The youngest member of the squad, Kayley Russell fought well in her division and came up against an older opponent in the semi finals. Although this was Kayley's 2nd competition she took the fight in her stride and within a large division took the bronze, which was awesome, and to the delight of the squad watching her fight. 

One of the adults who fought well and took Gold was Alan Johnston, who has only taken part in a few competitions. Alan stunned his opponent in the opening seconds of the fight with a turning kick to the head. Although his opponent made a recovery and continued with the fight, he could not match Alan's quick kicking and punching.

The team of fighters from Scotland did exceptionally well with many taking silver or bronze in their large categories.  Ceila Gough fought very hard and walked away with Silver in her division. After the individual sparring categories, the destruction took place. This division was split into two categories, one was power breaking and the other technical breaking.

The power breaking saw Master Kirkwood take Gold, as he was the only high grade to break boards in both attempts. In the junior section young Max Wilson took Gold as he broke 2 boards with a step in side kick. As this was his first try at breaking he blew the competition away and his team mates with is perfect technique. Juniors who took Silver were Jack Reid, Kara Gough, Kirsty Gough and Adam Wilmot.

Day two saw individual forms, one-step and team forms taking place. The squad was awesome within the Team Patterns and individual patterns. Tammy Sutherland made up Team Scotland in the Black Belt division and joined her team mates Jack Reid and Kara Gough. The team was within a large division and were delighted to take Silver. Tammy also went on to take Bronze in her individual pattern event and was up against many Black Belts within her division.

Kirsty Gough took Gold in the individual patterns as did John Kirkwood Junior and Alan Johnston. The adult Black Belt team division was a hard event, with many 3rd, 4th degree Black Belts taking part. John Kirkwood Jnr, Kirsty Gough and Mark Russell took Team Scotland to the final and took Silver, which was tremendous when the team had only came together three weeks prior.

Ceila Gough, Billy Reid and Eddie Kerr took their team to the finals and walked away with Silver. In the adult individual patterns Alan Johnston, Eddie Kerr and Paul McCartney took to the floor against Irish competitors. It was awesome when Scotland took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in this event. In the Adult team Paul and Alan where joined by Master Darcy's partner, Marie King who was made an honouree Scottish team member for the day. The team took silver and did extremely well, since they had only came together that day.

In the One-Step teams, Alan Johnston and Paul McCartney took Gold in their division, as did Eddie Kerr and Billy Reid. In all the squad was exceptional with all the hard training, in sparring, patterns and team events over many months. A.I.M.A.A Scotland is proud of its National Squad and look forward to hearing about their next event and what they have achieved.

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