BY KIERAN McCARTHY
ORAN Brady holds the bragging rights at home right now.
The Bantry teenager (17) won TWO gold medals at the WAKO Youth World Kickboxing Championships in Budapest in August, and that saw him rocket to the top of the Brady Brothers’ Roll of Honour.
His older brothers, Sean and Oisín, have both won world kickboxing titles before, in 2016 and 2022 respectively, so Oran went one better this year to bring two back more into this kickboxing-mad household.
Coached by his dad Bernard, who runs ION Kickboxing Club, this incredible family effort has reaped four world gold medals, and counting.
‘It all started with dad, he started kickboxing when he was younger, and he fell in love with it. He represented Ireland twice, on the world stage and the European stage, and won a European silver medal,’ Oran told The Southern Star as he was presented with a West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth award in the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery on Monday.
‘Sean won his world medal in 2016, that’s when I realised it could be done and it was possible. When Oisin won gold in 2022, I won a bronze medal which was great for me, and that’s when I realised I had to win the gold at some stage! I went one better and won two, and I have the bragging rights now!’
On the same Friday, just hours apart, at the WAKO Youth World Kickboxing Championships in late August, Oran won gold in both the -84kg junior light contact and kick light categories. It was impressive how he remained so focussed after winning the first gold medal, and then making it a double soon after.
‘The finals were against the same fella, he’s a good fighter in fairness, very awkward. I won the kick light fairly well, by about ten scores on each judge so I took the positives from that,’ Oran explained.
‘I put on my headphones, listened to the Cranberries, U2, all the classic Irish songs. Dreams from the Cranberries really got me in the zone, so by the time I went out for the continuous final, I was really in it.’
Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí student Oran showed his class to bring two world titles home to Bantry, and all the hard work is paying off.
‘If you asked me two or three years ago, before when I went to my first international competition, that I would be number one, I would have snapped your hand off. It’s amazing, I really didn’t expect it, but a lot of work went into this – waking up before school to train, training before work, two to three sessions a day, I’ve put in the work so I felt like I owed it to myself by the end,’ said Oran, who has a busy schedule ahead in the weeks to come.
‘I have a unified championship out in Italy, it’s an open competition so anyone can enter. Then at the end of November I’m going to Bristol for a fight night where I’m fighting in continuous -84kg for a junior title, and that’s semi-pro,’ he added, as Oran looks to finish his dream year on a high note.
