The community of Clondalkin was proudly represented by 5 young athletes competing at the WAKO Youth World Kickboxing Championships which were held in Budapest, Hungary 24th - 31st August.

Brothers Roan and Cayden Derwin, Robert and Arthur Dryja as well as Louise Shortt qualified to represent Ireland at the World Championships back in March. Since then, they have all been in intense preparations in their BMA Clondalkin club as well as training camps with the official Team Ireland squad. 

The WAKO Youth World Championships had 63 countries participating with over 2,500 athletes from around the world competing for the position of World Champion.

Team Ireland had 77 competitors that came from clubs all over Ireland.

Local clubs TMA (Tallaght), Ljays (Tallaght), Team Revolution (Lucan) and Clondalkin's very own BMA outfit took a big part of the team set up. 

"Competing at the WAKO World Championships is the cream of the crop in regards to kickboxing world championships," says BMA Clondalkin head coach Ilija Salerno.

"To qualify and be part of the official Team Ireland squad is a huge achievement already and to have 5 young local athletes step on the world's biggest stage of kickboxing is a testament to the talent in our community"

Even though no medals were brought home from this event, the Clondalkin elites gained vast experience and knowledge, making them hungrier than ever to improve for next year's season and will be aiming to qualify for the European championships as their goal.

The Clondalkin club has fielded athletes at the very top in youth and senior level producing world and European champions as well as  multiple national champions since it was established in 2001. 

"We have a new junior elite squad at the moment and this World championships was  a good test to see how well they are progressing," adds coach Salerno, "We have also trained up a new senior coach in our ranks, Robert Barrett, where he has taken the task of developing our elite athletes and bring them to the top level of competition. This transition takes time and Robert is already doing an outstanding job with results already flourishing at national level".