Bronze for Sean McCarthy in Karate

Sean McCarthy Crean has won bronze in the Men’s Kumite +68kg category at the Youth Olympic Games. The Corkman qualified for the semi-finals by defeating both Japan’s Keisei Sakiyama and Slovakia’s Tomas Kosa in the Elimination Rounds. In the semi-final he was denied a fight for gold by Moroccan Nabil Ech-Chaabi, in a 2-1 defeat.

 

Disappointed to miss out on gold, the driven Corkman said, “I just lost it, it’s disappointing, but I’ll watch it back and figure out how to fix it the next time. I was trying to test him out to figure out what he was going to do but my attack was out of distance and it went past, I should have been more precise with it but it’s grand. I’ll fix it next time.

McCarthy began karate in school with his twin brother Chris,“My brother got a note in school, he showed it to my parents and we were like, we might as well go down and try it out.”

 

As with all sport, it takes an army to get these athletes to the world stage, the Coghroe Karate Club member added, “I just want to say thanks to my family – they’re really good support and my coaches too are great. My national coach John Connolly and my club coach Steve they’re always helping me. And the Olympic Federation of Ireland for covering me over here, I really appreciate it, and the physio as well for helping me out.

 

Determined to improve and progress, McCarthy finished by saying, “I just have to watch it back and figure it out now.”

 

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