International Championships

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!


Fuji Mae Kids Cup

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The Netherlands, December 8th 2019

Results members ITF-Belgium:

  • Jef Gerits: gold tul, gold sparring, gold special techniques
  • Mattiz Verbraeken: gold sparring, silver tul
  • Jesse Deschryver: gold tul, gold sparring
  • Suela De Messemaeker: gold tul, silver sparring, silver special techniques
  • Noah De Messemaeker: bronze tul, bronze sparring
  • Jessica Geerinck: gold tul, gold special techniques, silver sparring, silver power breaking

Star of East

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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.