September 8th the team that will represent Belgium at the upcoming European Championships 2019 in Sarajevo, BIH, October 10th-14th, had a squad training in Woluwe under guidance of Master Virginia Dionisi, Bob Wigman, Hans Rombaut, Erika Knihti-Van Driessche, Andreea Musca, Erik Van Hoeck & Gonzalo Tejerina.
All athletes worked hard and proved that this belgian team is ONE team. We’re looking forward to their performances in one month.
On September 5th, 6th and 7th the newly elected ITF Board of Directors held its first meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. Although the last weeks a lot of work had already been done, and some decisions were made through digital channels, the list of items on the agenda was very long. Each day the meeting started at 9.00h and lasted until 20.00-20.30h.
However, the meeting was very constructive and passed in a very positive athmosphere. The future of the ITF and its members is looking bright for the upcoming 4 years.
As every year, since the last 3 years, I went to the ITF Fight Evolution Summer Camp organized by Oleg and Katya Solovey. It took place in Yablunytsya in the Carpathians from July 22nd to July 29th. The camp is growing every year. This time, there was 122 participants from 18 countries. Among those, there were 3 Masters (Master Stephen Cooley from Ireland, Master Thierry Meyour from Finland and Master Alexandru Muresan from Romania) and more than 10 World Champions. Many participants were also part of their national teams. The level was very high. We were divided in 3 groups : coloured belts, black belt female and black belt male. There were 3 training sessions per day :
1. morning run in the mountains or crossfit (every other day)
2. sparring drills with pads
3. sparring (competition sparring, point fighting etc.).
In the middle of the week, we had a day off where most of the people went to Bukovel to rest. And in the last evening, we had the ‘Sayonara party’ to celebrate the end of the camp.
Once more, I enjoyed the experience. Not only for the training but also for the great atmosphere in this camp and the opportunity to meet Taekwon-Do friends again. And it was a very good preparation for the European Championships.
The European Championships 2019 are coming closer, and some of the athletes are searching for some means to collect money to pay for the travel and the hotel. For the WC in April most clubs gathered funds for their own competitors, but now some of them thought it would be a good idea to combine all of their efforts. Some initiatives are on their way, but already Leen managed to make a page through Trooper.
Trooper? Trooper is an online forum that combines a lot of online shops, like e.g. CoolBlue, Zooplus, Dreamland, Booking.com and many more. If you buy online and do this through the Trooper page instead of going directly to the online shop, you can decide to give a small piece of the profit to an organisation. The customer chooses of course his/her own charity.
Are you planning to do some online shopping and would you like a small piece of the profit to go to the national team members, to support them on their way to Sarajevo? Then from now on you can shop through Trooper, thanks to Leen.
Sunday June 23rd the trials for the 2019 EC in Sarajevo were done, followed by a meeting with the coaches. The members of the belgian team received the announcement a day later.
Are selected for the European Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, October 2019:
Musca Andreea: tul IV°-VI°degree, sparring -50kg, pre-arranged free sparring, team power breaking
Erik Van Hoeck: sparring -78kg, team sparring
Esther Meulemeester: sparring -75kg, power breaking, team power breaking
Roeland Heirbaut: tul II°degree, sparring -70kg, special techniques, team sparring
Terence Bewa: sparring -78kg, team sparring
Leen Walraeve: tul I°degree, pre-arranged free sparring, team power breaking
Laura Mouret: tul I°degree, sparring -68kg, team power breaking
Hans Van Lierde: power breaking
Nicolas Taylor: sparring -85kg, team sparring
Corentin Besonhé: sparring -85kg, team sparring
Tabitha Van Lierde: junior tul I°degree, junior power breaking
Lisa Ghijsens: junior tul I°degree
Arthur Delhaye: junior tul I°degree, junior sparring -68kg
Officials: GrandMaster Frank Vanberghen, Master Annick Van Driessche
The AETF Umpire Committee selected 50 umpires for the championship. Amongst them are also 2 belgian referees: Eddy Van Damme and Benito Martinez.
Many thanks to our sponsors, FROS and Mighty Fist.
