12 December 2010
A group of Irish sports people travelled to the Far East in the name of friendship within Sport.
Peace Fighters Japanese Connection
It was an historic visit for a team of Irish sports people as they travelled the astonishing 5879 miles to Tokyo, Japan in order to hone their skills in the sport of Kickboxing. The Peace Fighters Initiative is aimed to promote peace and respect through sport and it was a privilege for everyone on the team to be invited.
The team consists of amateur kickboxers from all over Ireland and who are helping to bring communities from every side together in the name of peace and respect within sport. Team Coach and Manager Billy Murray from ProKick Gym in Belfast alongside the fighters themselves and several ProKick members all got involved in raising sponsorship for the team to travel and compete. The team spent nearly 2 weeks in Japan, meeting K1 legends such as Ernesto Hoost, Tyrone Spong and many others and got the opportunity to show our Eastern cousins the true meaning of ‘The Fighting Irish.’ Within the ring, of course.
First the team travelled to Nagoya where the team faced an amateur select from Master Hoost’s Gym. A few days later the team visited the J-Network for sparring and training. The final leg of training was hosted by the WKN japanese office held at the Shidokan Karate & kickboxing in Tokiwadai Tokyo which is a branch of the Japanese Shidokan honbu.
The young amateur ProKick team faced some of Japan’s hardened professionals for sparring with all of the team having the opportunity of a few 3 minute rounds of kickboxing sparring.
Team coach Billy Murray said: ” I’d like to thank the Shidokan Karate & kickboxing in Tokiwadai Tokyo - and especially Mrs Shinobu SESHIME who went out of her way to help us.
The sparring was great and invaluable for this young team. I really wanted to pit my guys with the same standard of amateurs from Shidokan. This would have given me a better indication to gauge our performances. Having said that all our team loved the chance to step into the ring with some of Japan’s finest kickboxing talents.”