Newsletter Newsletter 1/2015 IUC Budapest - Report
A.E.T.F. REPORT
Newsletter 1/2015
IUC Budapest - Report

AETF reporter
Norbert Érseki

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The last International Umpire Course before the World Championships of 2015 was held last weekend in Budapest. The event was conducted by Grandmaster Wim Bos, Master Alberto Katz and Master Harry Vones.

The event was held on the bank of the river Danube on the Pest side, close to Budapest’s main island called Margaret Island (Margitsziget).

Some important numbers: there were 153 attendants registered for the event, 138 of them got their ITF Umpire certificates at the end of the course with the participation of five 8th degree and twelve 7th degree Masters. Altogether 24 countries were represented at the event.

The registration started on Friday at the nice hotel “Danubius Health Spa Resort Helia”, and the ITF Tournament Committee also visited a few locations for the upcoming World Cup to be held in Budapest, 2016. The visit included 3 of the hotels and 2 sports halls (Budapest Sportaréna and SYMA Sports Hall, which are the 2 biggest sports halls in Budapest, rather close to each other). The hotels seemed to be fine, but the venue is still to be decided in the following months, as both seem to be good options for the event.

The IUC itself started Saturday morning with the theory part - especially going through the latest rule amendments which are really important for the upcoming World Championships. (If you have not read them yet, they are available throughout the ITF’s new website at http://www.tkd-itf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Amendments-2015.pdf).

The most interesting characteristic of the event was, that it was conducted as a workshop. All ideas and questions were welcome. It was really nice to see that both the presenters and the attendants wanted to have the most clear rules possible to have a more precise tournament regulation, and it was really nice to see, that the rules and the new amendments were built around the idea to have them more competitor-friendly, and to make the competitions even more spectacular.

Grandmaster Bos has expressed, that it is possible that some of the rules are not good enough, and could be better-elaborated, but they would like to hear the opinion of every coach and competitor, so they would be able to build the best set of rules available.

In the afternoon session there was a practical part incorporated: the scoring system was set up (the one which Master Vones have brought from Germany, the one that was used at the last Euros as well), and talked through the protocols for umpires.

After a long and tiring day the organizers gave an official dinner party for anyone who wanted to eat with the Grandmaster and the Masters and spend a nice evening together. The dinner was in the hotel’s own restaurant, with a quite nice selection of Hungarian cuisine, with a surprise string-quartet playing Hungarian-themed classical music, and some gifts for the officials participating in the event, including some national delicacy, and the well-known Rubik’s cube for them. The last surprise of the evening was a big IUC themed cake with tatami floor of marzipan on its top. Grandmaster Bos seemed quite amazed by the cake - even taking a picture of it for himself - and then he made the first cut in it.

Sunday continued with the practical part with a lot of examples of power breaking and special techniques. The IUC committee always made clear, that the changes most important aim is to make Taekwon-do clean in the manner of techniques, and keep the level of the competition’s at high standards, therefore it was necessary to set more strict rules for the different competition categories.

Grandmaster Bos has expressed his gratitude for the Hungarian ITF Taekwon-do Federation, led by Master László Harmat, and for the head organizer Sabum Péter Szász for their work, and pointed out that these same people will be the organizers of the upcoming World Cup!

Another important announcement has been made: Master Gordon Wallace from Scotland has been selected to be the assistant of the Umpire Committee for the upcoming World Championships.

There were a lot of prominent leaders and committee members present on the event including presidents of national federations, AETF and ITF committee and board members, masters. Some important names to mention:

Apart from the presenters, Master László Harmat, president of the Hungarian ITF Taekwon-do Federation, Master Coos van den Heuvel and Master Juan Ferrando were also present. 8th degrees: Master James Tijn-A-Ton, Master Panagiotis Gialamas, Master Gordon Wallace, Master Carmine Caiazzo, Master Per Andresen. Master Alexander Dunbar - leader of AETF Umpire Committee (with the whole AETF Umpire Committee present) and Master Lazaros Tsilfidis (AETF Board Member, leader of the Russian Taekwon-do Federation) also took part at the event.

Official photographs taken are available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.418830188275579.1073741832.313060342185898&type=1.


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