The new national governing board of ITF Finland had their first meeting on January 2nd 2011. Heli Karjalainen (4th degree) starts the second year of her first term as president as well as Laura Nikkola-Kuusisto as treasurer. Olli Leino (3rd degree) was elected vice president and Jarimatti Valkonen secretary. The other board members are Thierry Meyour (6th degree) and Sari Kiviranta.

At the federation’s autumn meeting on November 13th 2010 the new persons responsible for committees were elected for the next two-year term (2011-2012). In the technical committee Jukka Nyman (5th degree) will continue as the promotions director as well as Mikko Allinniemi (5th degree) as the training director. The new technical director is Jori Aaltonen (5th degree).

Pekka Varis (4th degree) will continue as the director of the top-level sports committee and the head coach of the national team. Jori Aaltonen, Jari Lahtinen (4th degree) and Ari Lehtinen (4th degree) will be acting as assistant coaches. Competition and umpire committee will be directed by Lasse Kuusisto (4th degree), the junior’s committee by Ilkka Naulapää (2nd degree) and the PR and marketing committee by Sari Kiviranta.

Master Lan seminar

The most important event in 2011 is Finland’s first International Instructors Course which will be held in June (10-12.06) in the city of Oulu. High turnout, both from Finland and from abroad, is expected. Also, new visits from prominent international instructors continue as Jaroslaw Suska visits Tampere this January.

IIC Finland 2011 Official Invitation (PDF, 1,5 MB)
IIC Finland 2011 Hotel Accomodation Form (MS xls, 131 kB)
IIC Finland 2011 Application Form (MS xls, 40 kB)

The main event for juniors in 2011 is a massive sports gathering called Your Move in Helsinki. In six days over 50 000 young people (13-19 year-olds) will be gathering to the surroundings of the Olympic Stadium to experience all kinds of different sports. ITF Finland will arrange a training camp for its own juniors and also organize Taekwon-Do performances and give trial lessons for the other young people in the “Fight Zone” area.

On the administrative side, the biggest effort will be completing the cooperation negotiations with The Finnish Taekwondo Federation (WTF). The plan is to create one umbrella Taekwon-Do Federation in Finland under which both Taekwon-Do styles would still act independently. This will increase the amount of resources available to develop the federation’s operation and the plan is supported and requested by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

WTF training

All in all the upcoming year seems promising on the administrative point of view and the amount of events organized is also a very positive sign. Wishing all of you a very happy and successful year 2011!

Yours in Taekwon-Do,
Ms. Heli Karjalainen
President of ITF Finland