Carbury kickboxer becomes World Kickboxing Champion 2018

Last week the WAKO Junior World Championships were held in Jesolo, Italy.

Over 3000 participants competed in various disciplines One of these was 18year old point fighter, Conor McGlinchey from Carbury.

Although he lives nearly an hour away, Conor trains with Tallaght Martial Arts in Dublin under the guidance of Dave Heffernan and Martin Bannon.

This was Conor's last year as a junior and he successfully fought his way to the Gold medal, defeating Norway, Slovenia, Greece and Hungary in the -79kg category.

Conor has fought in 6 Championships since he was 12 and has reached the final 5 times.

He is now 2x World Champion, European Champion and has also claimed many other titles at home and internationally.

Conor recently completed his Leaving Cert and plans to study Criminology in UCC next year but for this academic year he is preparing to move to the USA where he is a member of ASG sponsored Team Proper, over there he will train and compete with the team that is run by San Francisco based, Junior Salientes.

Before he heads stateside Conor will he stepping up to senior level as he is now a member of the Irish Senior Team. Ireland ranked 4th out of 63 countries in the medal tables, an incredible achievement for our small country.

What is even more outstanding is that these young athletes receive no government funding and their entire trip and gear is financed by their families and from any corporate sponsorship they can obtain.

Conor is extremely grateful to The Johnstown Estate who sponsored his training programme.

Conor says:"The sacrifices my family have made over the years in order to support me are huge and that makes this win even more special."

Although only back from Italy a few days ago, this extremely disciplined World Champion has already returned to training and is preparing for his next challenges.

Conor gladly advises and mentors younger athletes and he is hugely respected in the kickboxing world as a gentleman as well as an outstanding athlete.

This young man has an extremely bright future ahead of him!