A squad of five IKKU competitors travelled to the recent WKF Dutch Open held in Almere last March. Ronan Flynn, Gordon Smith, Aaron McLoughlin, Rachel Earley and Justyne Collins travelled with IKKU Chief Instructor Paul Brennan. The Dutch Open is extremely well attended on an annual basis given the high standard of competition at the event and this year it was no different. Over 700 competitors participated at the two day competition.

One of our most experienced squad members Ronan Flynn was competing in the Mens -84kg event. Ronan met a Belarussian in the first round of the competition and despite a good performance did not progress further.

Gordon Smith received a bye into the second round of the Mens +84kg category. Gordon had a very close flight with his Ukranian competitor but was eventually beaten.

Aaron McLoughlin gave an impressive performance beating his French opponent well in the Mens -60kg section with a strong 7-3 win. He progressed to the second round but was unfortunately beaten by his Turkish opponent, who happened to be a former world champion.

Rachel Earley was very unfortunate to be beaten in the last ten seconds of her first fight by a Norwegian opponent in the Ladies -60kg category. Rachel led and dominated for the whole fight but conceded a score in the last few seconds and was beaten 3-1.

Unfortunately Justyne Collins, who was entered for the Ladies -68kg category had to make the tough decision to withdraw from the competition having sustained a bad ankle injury during one of the last training sessions in the run up to the competition. She decided to travel regardless to support her fellow squad members. Justyne hopes that she will be fighting fit again in a few weeks.

The next European event for the team will be the EKFs in Tampere, Finland next May.