Thursday October 9th
The second competition day started with junior male power breaking, with 2 belgian competitors: Gabriel Martinez and Cédrik Baert. Gabriel, on his first official tournament, broke with sonkal taerigi. Cédrik, on his second tournament after being selected for the Euros in April, made a lot of progression: he managed to break the boards with 4 out of 5 techniques. However, he did not receive points for the first break, with ab choomok chirugi, and some of the competitors broke with all of the techniques, but if he keeps on making progression in this way, a bright future is waiting for him.
In the morning also Hans Rombaut and Wim Vermeir were competing, in a very large category male pattern 4th-6th degree, a category of a very high level. Hans was the first one to enter the ring, up against Puerto Rico. He did not have his best day, with some issues in balance, still on a high level although we know he can do much better. It would have been sufficient against a lot of other adversaires, but the competitor from Puerto Rico was of high level (he won several bouts after this first one), so Hans lost the bout with 3 to 2. Wim on the contrary had a superb day, and did one of his best performances ever on a World Championship. Unfortunately the referees gave the win to Sweden. Both Altan Rinchinov and Rune Schuddinck competed in male tul 1st degree, Altan against Spain, Rune up to Finland. Both of our competitors did well, but had to face a stronger opponent. However, they are young and with a lot of margin to grow. Last of the morning session was Alice Vrinat, in female tul 3rd degree. Alice had a good preparation with several wins in competitions over the last few weeks. She was up against Norway, did – in our eyes – better than the opponent, but lost the bout.
In the afternoon session, Helin Capa was the first to enter the ring, in junior female powerbreaking. She smashed the boards in 4 out of 5 techniques. Big thing for a small girl…. There was also the female pattern 4th-6th degree competition, with Andreea Musca, up against England. Patterns were Ul-ji and Kwang-gae. Unfortunately Andreea missed one technique in a for the rest splendid performance… so England received the win. Last to come in action in individual competition this afternoon was Heidi Bewa, in junior female power breaking. She broke all of the boards, with all of the techniques. Out of the 26 competitors, 17 managed to break all of the boards, they went to the tie break: sonkal taerigi, one and a half extra boards. Only 5 girls could break, among them also Heidi. Next tie break, dollyo chagi. Two girls could break the 2 boards, England and New Zealand, while the Finnish girl could bend one board. This leaves Heidi and the opponent from Slovakia with a shared 5th place. Well done, 5th best of the world, out of 26!
Later this afternoon Belgium, with Andreea Musca and Hans Rombaut, competed in senior pre-arranged free sparring, with 25 teams. They came up 9th, against the USA. As team USA did not show up, they went straight on to the second bout, against Chile. Belgium won the bout, third round up to Sweden. Unfortunately they lost this bout, leaving them with a 5th place, just missing out on a medal.