The Irish kick-boxing team returned this week from the European Championships in Jesolo, Italy, with six medals (one gold, one silver and four bronze). This sport, under the auspices of the Irish governing body AKAI (Allstyles Kick-boxing Association), is certainly demanding attention.
Roy Baker (35), the gold medallist of the team, may self-effacingly characterise himself as being old and having no real natural talent, but as the current European champion his flirtations with retirement are being put on hold, at least until next year's World Championships.
Baker has been involved in martial arts for 20 years and although a world champion under other international bodies, the WAKO European medal is the most prestigious he has won.
As with professional boxing, there are different organisations of varying status within the sport of kick-boxing.
"I had a very serious accident competing in Birmingham last May, where my knee was completely dislocated from the socket. They had to wait two months to operate because of the swelling and I had to have it restructured. Basically I didn't think I'd ever be able to get back to this level," he says. "I really went over to the European Championships just hoping to do well. When I got there I was up against the Italian world champion in the semi-final. I beat him by just one point and that went into extended time, which is very rare at that level."
Baker went on to win the final with confidence, decisively beating Switzerland's John Crenoly 14-3. Like Olympic boxing's "mercy rule", if a fighter moves to 10 points or more ahead the contest is stopped.
The sport's rules are simple. Targets are the head, and full torso. No legs, no groin, no back and no neck, and if you make full contact with a blow and knock your opponent out you are automatically disqualified.
"The primary concern at that level is to get through you opponent's guard and deliver the technique with control," says the fourth degree black belt who won at European Championship level in 1994 and World Championship level in 1995 and 1997. But he had not won the WAKO versions. "Without a doubt this was the hardest one. I've been trying well over 10, 15 years to get this one. I was at the stage where if I hadn't got something special this year I would have stopped. Thirty-five is old . . . it's old. Even the referees were saying to me `Roy, how are you still doing it?' "
A member of the Bushido Martial Arts club in Leixlip, Co Kildare, and the national kick-boxing coach, the non-smoker and non-drinker dedicated his medal to his supportive father, Dave, who died just three years ago.
It may not be the end of Roy Baker's story. "The World Championships are next year in Belgrade and I'll be 36," he says. "Depending on how the body's reacting and developing I'd like to go for it."
It seems the only way.
European Championships, Irish performances - Gold: Roy Baker (Kildare). Silver: Nicola Corbett (Dublin). Bronze: Darren Duncan (Sligo), Donal Kealy (Derry), Paul Coffey (Cork), David Tarpey (Kildare).
European Championship gold medallist Roy Baker (left), with Ennio Falsoni, president of the World Association of Kick-boxing Organisations and Michael McDermott, president of the Allstyles Kick-boxing Association of Ireland.
