Report by Sabum Virginia Dionisi:
Gold in Team Sparring at the European Cup 2017!
9th -11th June 2017 
Thibaut De Preter (ITF Etterbeek), Nicolas Taylor (Samjok-O) and Omar El Ferkhani (ITF Brussels) did it! They defeated the team sparring coloured belts from Finland winning three times.
Each team had three competitors. We put the first competitor on the ring: it was Omar. He fought against a competitor of the -70 category. Omar moved very well and countered attacked effectively. He scored almost every time he attacked. He won the match 4-0. Our second competitor was Thibaut. He fought against the competitor that defeated him in individual sparring. This time the combat was different. He corrected the mistakes of the first fight and changed the strategy. He won the combat 4-0! Our third competitor was Nicolas. But the Finnish competitor was injured and preferred not to compete. So, it was 4-0 again for Belgium.
Thibaut, Nicolas and Omar also got a bronze medal in individual sparring in the categories coloured belts -78, -85 and -63 respectevely.
Alice Vrinat and Pablo Pascuzzo also competed in individual sparring. Alice did a good fight in a mixed weight category (+62) where there were another six Polish competitors. It was her first time with lighter competitors. She did well but could not win this time. Pablo competed against Russia (-63). He did a great fight, but the umpires did not see the so many clear points he did and he lost…
In patterns, Alice defeated Poland in the first round and lost with Poland in the second round against the lady that won the category. Nico lost against Finland in a very close match. Thibaut defeated Poland and then lost against Poland with the one that won the category. Finally, Omar did a good tul but lost against Poland.
Bo Sabum Benito Martínez worked as umpire in the Children and Cadets competition on Friday and at the European Cup on Saturday and Sunday. Sabum Pablo Pascuzzo and myself were coaches, while Leonor Garcia helped us taking pictures and making videos.
We felt a lot of mixed emotions at the European Cup held in Lublin (Poland), which had 379 competitors from 22 countries, 66 clubs from Europe and 6 competition areas. It was a good international experience for our team, and the athletes came back home very motivated!
Yours in Taekwon-Do,
Sabum Virginia Dionisi (ITF Brussels)
