Harrisville, WV...Team America has traveled to Ireland again this year to compete in the 10th Irish Cup Karate and Ju-jitsu Championship. The event is held annually in Dublin, Ireland and was held this year on June 25th, 2006.

Nine members of Harrisville’s Hornet’s Nest Martial Arts Academy were on the team this year and they all came home as Irish Cup Champions winning 24 of the medals.

There were 460 competitors from around the world this year and only 27 were from Team America, yet the Americans won 88 medals including 27 Golds, 28 Silvers, 33 Bronze, 4 Grand Championship swords and the Irish Cup. Team America comprised only 6% of the Competitors but won 27% of the 300 medals and 50% of the Grand championship swords.

Representing the United States from the Hornet’s Nest were Si Mui Katie Thornburg who won Silver in fighting, and Bronze medals in Grappling, Randori Ju-jitsu, and Weapons Kata, Katie had no competitors in her weight class so she moved up to a heavier class and still did very well, Kyosa Nim Zach (Slouchy) Lanham won Silver in Grappling and Bronze in Weapons Kata, Master Randy Roberts won Gold in Randori Ju-jitsu, Silver in Duo Ju-Jitsu and Bronze in Kata, Sabom Tim Roberts won Bronze medals in Randori Ju-jitsu, Kata and Team Fighting, Sensei Joseph Colkett won Gold in Weapons kata and Bronze in kata, Sifu Jimmy Colkett won Bronze medals in Fighting and Weapons kata, Sensei Diana Colkett won Silver in Fighting and Bronze in Team Fighting, Si Mui LiMing Colkett won Gold in Randori Ju-Jitsu and Silver in Grappling. Si Tai Gung Steve Colkett won Gold in Weapons Kata, Silvers in Forms and Self defense and Bronze in Randori Ju-Jitsu.

Before going to Ireland the team traveled around Europe spending 2 and a half days in Amsterdam, Holland, touring the City along the miles and miles of canals and the Netherland countryside and visiting a cheese factory, wooden shoe factory, De Kat windmill farm, fishing villages and saw the Dikes that hold back the sea, and toured the Van Gogh museum, the team also toured the infamous red light district in Amsterdam. Everywhere we went we ran into groups of football fans who had traveled from all over the world to see the next game in the World Cup, the British get the award for rowdiest fans.



Next was a train trip thru Belgium at 185 miles per hour, the countryside was beautiful and stops were made in cities like Brussels, Antwerp and The Hague.

Then into Paris, France where the team stayed 3 days touring the city, making visits to the Seine River, Eiffel tower where from the top you can see the entire city of Paris, then the Arc De Triumph, Notre Dame Cathedral and spent half a day in the Musee Du Louvre the worlds most famous art museum where they saw great works of art such as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s Dying Slave, and the Venus Di Milo, artist Unknown. Veronese’s Wedding Feast of Cana, Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings and Antiquities by all the great masters. The Team traveled around Paris on bus and subway and because they were there for the June 21st summer solstice celebration the subway was packed with party goers and was a nightmare.

Then the flight to Ireland for the Competition, when the team arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport they ran into Wacko Jacko, Michael Jackson and his family who were all wearing masks , Michael was in trouble again and heading for court in Cork, Ireland. While in Ireland the team traveled around touring the city of Dublin, visiting Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ’s Church, Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the book of Armagh. Shopping on famous Grafton street where no traffic is allowed just shoppers and many street performers and sampling the Irish stew at M.J. O’Neill’s pub, and many toured the countryside and Irish seashore visiting a town and castle built in 800 AD. And a town and castle built in 3240 BC. And a beautiful botanical garden where the battle scenes of the movie Braveheart were filmed.



The trip home was horrible with all our flights being delayed and sitting on the runway for 2 hours in a hot plane waiting to take off, with the trip taking over 24 hours, and 30% of the luggage lost on the last leg but all in all everyone had a great trip and look forward to going again.

COMBAT WARRIOR E-MAGAZINE July 2006 / CombatWarriorMag.net