The 2020 European Championships will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia in the period April 29th-May 3rd . In order to be able to make the selection for the Belgian team 2020 and to proceed in the preparations we need to know BEFORE DECEMBER 21st 2019 which competitors are interested in joining the team for this EC AND are able to travel to Bratislava during this period.
Please fill in the form and send it back to taekwondo1@telenet.be before the requested date. You will be contacted shortly after.
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.
On November 16 and 17 2019 Sabum Hans Rombaut and I participated to the 146th IIC held in Espoo, Finland, which gathered 144 practitionners from 12 different countries. The organising club, Espoo Taekwon-Do club, also celebrated their 30th anniversary that weekend. The technical committee members, Grand Masters Hector Marano 9th degree, Kim Ung Lan 9th degree and for the first time ever Master Jerzy Jedut 8th degree, conducted the courses. They consisted in patterns from Chon-Ji to Ge Baek, footwork and sparring drills, and step sparring the first day. The second day began with self-defense and patterns of II Dan. The 2nd degrees then joined the 1st degrees with theory questions, fundamental movements and sparring drills while senior degrees went on until Tong Il. Thank you to Sabum Teppo Häyrynen and Sabum Veera Häyrynen who organized a really successful IIC and gave us a very warm welcome.
With 189 participants in tul, sparring and kids sparring, 37 umpires, 6 IT assistants and 38 coaches. The championship was open to coloured and black belts.
For the first time in Belgium the ITF electronical system was used on all rings. Many thanks to the U&T Committee ITF-Belgium and Master Harry Vones for the implementation of this sytem.
The championship was organised by Patrick Crevecoeur and his team from Bushido.
