Newsletter 4/2007 2nd European Cup in Finland
Newsletter 4/2007 2nd European Cup in Finland
3 years after the Euros 2004 the City of Tampere in Finland was again the capitol of European Taekwon-do as the 2nd European Cup was held there from 5th to 7th October 2007. This time the main organizer was Mr. Mariusz Steckiewicz, the President of ITF Taekwon-do Finland.
The tournament was on good organizational level. The organizers provided very nice trophies for the best schools, medals and attractive diplomas. It is always big challenge to organize such kind of championships therefore we would like to praise Mariusz and Saja Steckiewicz and whole the staff.
Mr. Coos v/d Heuvel and Mr. Sandy Dunbar - the members of the AETF Tournament and Umpire Committee were coordinating the work of all umpires during the championships. As usually they did very good and professional job.
The championship was held on Saturday and Sunday in the Metro Auto Arena not far away from the City Center. 170 competitors from 14 countries representing 38 clubs took part in this event. The participants came from following countries: England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.
On Saturday evening the organizers prepared special arrangement for spectators. The most interesting finals were wrapped up with the live music and lights show. Next to the five chosen sparring finals the spectators could also enjoy the male 4th Degree pattern and especially very spectacular traditional sparring.
The group PULSE with the lead singer, Mr. Thierry Meyour, Taekwon-do 6th Degree, took care about the musical settings of the finals while they were singing the classics from Pink Floyd.
The first place and the biggest trophy won the Polish National Team with 39 (7*) points (6 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals). The second place took the Irish Taekwon-do Association II with 30 (10*) points (3 gold and 2 silver medals). The third place in the point school classification went All Russia Taekwon-do Federation with 26 points (2 gold, 1 silver and 7 bronze medals).
Parallel with the European Cup was held for the first time the Euro Challenge. The organizers aimed this tournament at young competitors 12-15 years old and at older competitors 16-45 but low degrees (8 up to 5 kup). 60 competitors from 14 countries as well took part in this event.
The best school in the point medal classification was All Russia Taekwon-do Federation with 29 (26*) points (5 gold, 4 silver and 12 bronze medals). The second place went again to the Irish Taekwon-do Association II with 12 (13*) points (4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medal). The third place took All Ukrainian Taekwon-do Union with 11 (1*) points and 1 silver and 10 bronze medals.
See the results: http://www.itfeurope.org/NL2007-04-05.html.
You can read the news about the 1st European Cup on the AETF website here: http://www.itfeurope.org/NL2005-04-14.html.
