The Irish Taekwondo Association will host the ITF Taekwondo World Championships in Citywest next week.
Over 1,100 international athletes from 60 countries will compete at the World Championships, including a 61-member Irish national team.
180 officials, 100 umpires and 300 coaches have registered for the Championships, making it the biggest ITF World Championships ever.
The Irish team members have been training several times a week with their clubs in Dublin, Clare, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford over the last number of months and they meet for national squad sessions and camps regularly.
Adam Shelley is a five-time European individual sparring champion and has also won World and European team sparring categories. He will compete at the event in Citywest.
"I am looking forward to the World Championships because I am defending my world title on home soil," said Shelley.
"It will be an honour to compete in front of all of my family and friends."
"I have no doubt it will be the best World Championships to date with the amount of planning and organisation invested by the Irish Taekwondo Association.
"I am training twice a day, six days a week. My training consists of strength and conditioning and physical preparation in the gym in the morning, and tactical training and sparring in my club, Killester, in the evenings."
The senior female team are current World Cup champions and won bronze in 2015 at the European Championships. Ellen Ince is hoping to help bring more success to Team Ireland.
"I’m surrounded by a great team of people who have my best interests at heart," explained Ince.
"I’m incredibly lucky to have training partners that make the toughest training sessions enjoyable."
"We are all focused on the same goal and we’ve given 100% to our preparation, dedicating the last five months to training."
The opening ceremony takes place at 8pm in Citywest next Tuesday at 8pm.
