Relentless athletes at the IFMA Muay Thai World Championships in Abu Dhabi in September 10-19, from left, Davin Dalton (bronze medalist); Artem Rudenko (bronze medalist); Kayden Dalton (bronze medalist); Filip Tomka and Eva Barron.

Relentless athletes bring home three world bronze medals

Published: Mon 6 Oct 2025, 9:49 AM

Last updated: Mon 6 Oct 2025, 9:54 AM

“We are really proud of our five athletes who trained so hard in preparation for the event,” said Alan McCormack this week. “They all represented Relentless and their country to the highest level.”

Alan was speaking after the International Federation of Muay Thai Associations (IFMA) World Championships, where five members of the Mullingar club were on team Ireland: Eva Barron (10/11 age category, 32kg), Davin Dalton, (10/11 age category, 36kg, bronze medalist) Artem Rudenko, (12/13 age category, 58kg), Kayden Dalton (14/15 age category, 54kg) and Filip Tomka (16/17 age category, 71kg) – and three of whom were bronze medalists.

The world championship competition has been running for around a decade, and this is the second time Relentless has sent athletes to it.

“Even in just the last year, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of participants and the level of the competition has grown only in one year,” said Alan. “And that’s like a testament to Muay Thai – it’s getting bigger. This year there were 1,200 competitors. Last year, there were around 1,000, so it’s gone up a lot. And they all the strong countries like Russia, it is the best country. They had a huge team, and considering all that, we were really happy with how we did over there.”

Alan said all the local fighters showed that they were able for the top fighters in the world. “The standard is very high, but we’re up with the standard, definitely. Obviously, we can keep improving, but we’re definitely up there with the standard.”

Alan gave a rundown of how the five Relentless fighters did: Kayden Dalton won her category last year and went up in age this year. The 14-year-old won her first two fights, against Sudan and Czechia, but lost her semi-final to Russia. Eva Barron was against Malaysia but lost what was a close back and forth fight.

Davin Dalton won his first fight, against Iraq, and then lost to Russia in the semi-final. Artem Rudenko was straight into the semi-final in his division, and he went against Russia and lost a really close fight. Filip Tomka first fought Sri Lanka and won by stoppage in the first round and then he lost to Australia in the quarter-final.

Overall it was an excellent performance at the highest level, and the three bronze medals, for Davin, Artem and Kayden, show that the Relentless fighters are well able to hold their own.

The IFMA Muay Thai World Championships were in Abu Dhabi on September 10-19.

If you are interested in getting involved, find out more at relentlessmartialart.com.