Report by Alice Vrinat:
During the first weekend of June, I participated in the 5th edition of the Sardinia Open (formerly Mediterranean Open) and the 1st Edition of the Golden Summer Camp in Capoterra, Sardinia, Italy.
Those two events were very high level, well organized, friendly and brought together practionners from nine nations: Argentina, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. They were organized by Master Christian Oriolani, Sabum Silvia Farigu and Sabum Maurizio Lai.
The Sardinia Open, on Saturday 7 June 2025, went very smoothly. There were 5 rings (mostly 7×7); in the morning only black belts competed, in the afternoon only colored belts. The ring councils were constituted of 4 or 5 umpires which allowed all rings to work at the same time in the afternoon. There was a nice warm-up area with mats. They merged some categories and implemented the round robin system for black belts which created maximum opportunity to be in the ring.
There was also a tag team discipline, which is sparring with a second team member. They can replace each other as many times as they want during the round, as long as they fight at least 10 sec.
Team sparring for both male and female competitors was a special moment during the gala at the end of the day, where I could be part of the Italian team for 2 x 2mn against Argentina, which was a truly great experience.
On 8th and 9th June 2025, the very first edition of the Golden Summer Camp took place, with many World and Continental Champions both instructing and participating. There were different workshops from 9h to 19h, either for the whole group or in 2 groups: sparring (ITF Taekwon-Do and kickboxing), boxing, pattern, pre-Arranged, power breaking and stretching. At the end of each day there was an open free sparring session. Children had their own dedicated schedule on Saturday.
Particular attention was given to encourage black belts and colored belts to train together, and for everyone to train with someone with a higher level. The focus was also on the basics in each workshop, for instance correct stepping and rhythm in Pattern, or implementing the different motions in pre-arranged.
The championship and the camp were an amazing opportunity to improve by training with some of the best in the world.