As the 2017/2018 academic year for DCU comes to an end, the combat sports societies and clubs at DCU share their biggest achievements, success stories, members developments and ambitions for the future with The College View.
DCU MMA have had a successful year in meeting their goals and have gained a substantial level of interest through the year.
The main achievement of the club has been to introduce people to MMA at a beginner level and to keep more evolved fighters interested in the craft.
The main achievement of the club has been to have consistently great numbers at training all year,” said head coach Oisin McCabe.
Oisin went on to explain that a lot of the members of the club have fallen in love with the different sports that are encompassed in mma including wrestling, brazilian jiu jitsu, and muay thai, amongst many other disciplines.
The demand has even been good enough to arrange additional training on top of the 3 existing sessions each week.
On top of the interest in the club Oisin also talked about how successful members had been in competitions all over the country to the extent that the club are aiming for international competition next year.
The club were proud to have hosted the first leg of the Irish Submission Grappling League earlier in the year with especially strong showings and are eagerly awaiting the 2nd leg, to be held in DCU again, on the 29th of April.
The Karate Club were equally proud of their members, having competed in three main events – their grading, the Inter-Collegiate Cup and the annual Karate Intervarsities.
The grading portion involved members aiming to secure their first and second belt in karate. While this was the start of their karate journey, many of the members went on to compete and some even win medals at the inter-collegiate cup and the intervarsities. The club is happy to have had these members come on “leaps and bounds due to their training.”
In November, 6 members competed at the Inter-Collegiate Cup. DCU placed second overall and were proud of the members of the club who competed for the first time both in the beginner and senior categories. Each DCU competitor even won a medal in at least one event.
The Intervarsity Championships was the final main achievement for the club. On the 10th of March the championships took place in Cork with all 11 members of the club competing.
“All from the beginner to senior categories represented the club in a fantastic manner,” the club said.
“One of the highlights of the day was seeing the support each and every member provided for those who were competing at a particular time.”
They’re also honoured to have been picked to be hosts of the All-Ireland Intervarsity Championships in 2019 and look forward to welcoming new members next year.
Hugh Farrell
Image Credit: DCU Karate Club