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Salford fighters star in elite open

29/ 3/2007

SALFORD Taekwondo instructor Mark Richardson was beaming with pride after his two children won medals at the toughest open competition in the world at the weekend.

Daryl Richardson, aged 21, won a silver medal at the Dutch Open in Eindhoven and her 21-year-old brother Daley picked up a bronze medal after a foot injury forced him to withdraw from his scheduled semi-final clash with an Olympic silver medallist from Turkey.

The action started at 8.30am on Saturday and Daryl had her final fight at 1.15am on Sunday after beating opponents from Sweden, Germany, America and Great Britain. Daley defeated fighters from France A, Serbia, Olympic team Australia and Russia.

Mark Richardson said: "I'm so proud of how Daryl and Daley performed.

"And I am pleased with how the rest of my students at Manchester Taekwondo performed too. Representing Ireland, we actually won more medals than the Great Britain team on the first day and they have spent £500,000 on players and officials.

"Gary Kay, a 13-year-old from Salford, won a bronze medal for me. He had to pull out of his semi-final after a kick from his Turkish opponent snapped two of his fingers.

"Natasha Nash is also from Salford. She is 16 and lost to the eventual winner of her section in a quarter-final fight.

"The Dutch Open is the toughest open in the world. There were 1,720 competitors there from 92 different countries and all of the national Olympic players were out."