Newsletter 2/2014 Russia vs Ukraine Team Event
On 30th of March there was a very special event held in Russia. The All Russian ITF Taekwon-do Federation regularly invites different countries for a match in Russia. They have already had similar matches organized in several Russian cities like Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Belozersk of Hante-Masisk District. This year the association have chosen Novukuybyshevsk of Samara District to be the host city for this event.
The city is geographically located in the European part of Russia, on the bank of the River Volga, the largest river in Europe and in Russia.
The preparation for the event have been started around a year ago. This year the Federation wanted to invite a close friend of their country: Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia have shared a common past and they are culturally close, so they have had a really good relationship. However the recent events in Ukraine have changed a lot of things. We can read disturbing and mismatching information in the different newspapers about Ukraine. A few people expressed their loss of faith in this event - some of them even said that the event will not occur because of the current situation. However the Russian TKD Federation had faith and did not want to miss out on this special occasion: they believed that sport has to bring people closer together not tear them apart like in the history.
So they have continued with the preparations, and finally the event took place on the last Sunday of March. All the expenses - accommodation and travel costs were paid by the Russians (they would like to hereby express their special thanks to the SOYZ company for their great help). It was a professional event in the manner that both the first and second place winners have got a small amount as a prize as well as a medal as a memory of this event.
The event had five individual sparring match in a few weight categories (one match in almost all categories: -57kg, -63kg, -70kg, -85kg and +85kg). The organizers have used the current and official ITF rules as they always use them on this kind of events.
As because of the present situation between the countries the organizers would not like to disclose the results, they deeply believe that all the participants are winners who have competed in this great event - and we fully agree with them!
I hope that this kind of sportsmanship can be a good example for all practicioners of Taekwon-do and for all kind of sports and martial arts.
I would like to thank the information for Master Lazaros Tsilfidis (7 degree, President of All Russia ITF Taekwon-do Federation). Further source: http://www.tkdrus.ru/
