Annick Van Driessche

2020 European Championships Taekwon-Do

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The 2020 European Championships will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia April 28th-May 3rd. The belgian team will be quite big again, we’re expecting a lot of nice things of the team members. Their names are known, just as most of the disciplines for which they’re selected. On the Belgian Championships of February 16th the last details have to be decided, as in 2 disciplines/categories there’re 3 potential candidates for 2 places.

Competitors selected for the national team 2020, for individual and/or team events: Andreea Musca, Erik Van Hoeck, Esther Meulemeester, Laura Mouret, Margaux Pollefeyt, Orchana De Corte, Hans Van Lierde, Leen Walraeve, Tabitha Van Lierde, Omar El Ferkhani, Corentin Besonhé, Nicolas Taylor, Arthur Delhaye, Jens Baetselier, Juan Martinez, Yang Yang, Matteo Preys. 

Belgium will participate at several team events, besides the numerous individual disciplines: female team powerbreaking and teamtul, male team powerbreaking and sparring. 

The AETF Umpire Committee made the selection for the 2020 umpires team. Eddy Van Damme and Benito Martinez were selected to be part of the tem for these European Championships.

GrandMaster Frank Vanberghen and Master Annick Van Driessche will travel to Bratislava as officials for Belgium.

Many thanks to the sponsors, Mighty Fist and FROS.

The coaches: Master Virginia Dionisi, Erik Van Hoeck, Yves Pollefeyt, Orchana De Corte, Hans Van Lierde and Nicolas Taylor.

Categories EC

Sparring seminar in Bastogne

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Report by Marco Gaspar.

Saturday 28 December took place the first seminar organized by the club Bushido Bastogne. The city of Bastogne hosted a 3 hours sparring seminar with 36 participants who met for a learning moment with guest SabumNim Yves Pollefeyt. Without needing much introduction, SabumNim Yves Pollefeyt, well known to all participants, began by demonstrating that mental work in combat is the basis and that along with speed and strength provide the good results. Many kicks, many punches, many techniques with a training intensity that characterizes him made him believe that ‘Be Your Own Hero is to keep in mind. At the end of the seminar the opinion was unanimous, an excellent sparring seminar with an excellent reception by Bushido Bastogne.

20th International Christmas Cup Minsk

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Minsk, Belarus December 14-15 2019

Report by Nicolas Taylor:

Friday December 13th I traveled to Minsk (Belarus) for the 20th International Christmas Cup and my last competition for 2019! On Saturday early afternoon I participated to a 3-hours umpire seminar given by Sergey Saulite from Latvia (4th Dan) and acting as Chief Referee for this competition. Afterwards there was an exam (maybe an idea for future umpire seminar in Belgium).  In the late afternoon I attended a sparring seminar given by Oleg and Katya Solovey. In the evening there was a dinner party with representatives of the different countries participating to this tournament. Sunday was the big day. Despite 8 rings, with 800 participants from 12 countries, we knew it would be a long day. Competition started at 8.30 AM and finished at 10.00 PM. In tul I obtained the 3rd place, losing against the winner of the category. And in sparring I lost the final with golden point. My categories were in the morning. So, as from 1.00 PM to the end, I’ve been acting as referee. I had the opportunity to be the centre referee for tuls (coloured belts youth and juniors) as well as corner referee in sparring. It has been a busy weekend but also a very interesting one with lots of experiences. Now it’s time to take a small break before preparing next year!