The weekend of November 30th Nicolas Taylor participated at the Open ‘Star of East’ in Tasjkent, Uzbekistan. He won the silver medal in sparring -85kg.
Report by Nicolas:
Following my participation of the Kazakhstan Open Cup in March this year, I was invited by Master Han to participate to the 2nd International Tournament Tashkent Open « Star of East. » The competition was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on November 30th and December 1st. It was a great event with around 700 participants from 14 different countries such as Belorussia, Ukraine, Japan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,… . And Grand Master Weiler, the president of the ITF, was present as special guest. Funny fact, I was in the same flight that GM Weiler and the Ukrainian team. When we landed at Tashkent, both GM and myself were without luggage. Luckily, it arrives later in the day. The first day was dedicated to Tuls for everyone, where I lost in the second round. And to sparring for kids & juniors. The second day was sparring only, for youth and seniors. After winning against Uzbekistan, I lost the final against Danylo from Ukraine (the current World and European Champion). In the evening of the second day, there was a banquet organized with representatives of each country participating and a gift was given to us. The day after the competition, we were invited to a trip to Samarkand, one of the oldest city in Central Asia, with a lot of historical monuments. It was a great experience as it allows to see different style and competitor we barely saw in Europe. Countries like Tadjikistan, Japan have a very dynamic style of fighting. It was good to have the opportunity to do sparring against them or watching them. It was also, as usual, a moment to be with friends again. Now, it’s time to prepare for the last competition of the year in a week: The Christmas Cup in Minsk, Belorussia.