European Cup 2016 Report [8th July 2016]

Over half thousand of participants representing 40 sport schools from 15 European countries took part in the 7th European Taekwon-Do Cup and International Taekwon-Do Cup for Children and Cadets which took place in the term from 24th to 26th June 2016 in Cluj Napoca, Romania.

The organizer of championships was All Europe Taekwon-Do Federation and Romanian ITF Taekwon-Do Federation leaded by Mr. Cosmin Oprescu. The local organizer was the club Delta Taekwon-Do Cluj, which President - Master Alexandru Muresan was the Chairmen of the Organizing Committee.

The organization of the 7th European Cup would not be possible without a great support of Cluj Napoca Municipality. The event was held under the honorary auspices of Mr. Emil Boc the Mayor of Cluj Napoca.

from left: Mr. Adrian Bibu, Mr. Mihai Hondru - Members of Organizing Committee, Mr. Cosmin Oprescu - President Romanian ITF Taekwon-Do Federation, Mr. Emil Boc - Mayor of Cluj Napoca, Master Alexandru Muresan - Chairman Organizing Committee, Mr. Ciprian Banea - Member of Organizing Committee

The main sponsor of the event was the BMW Autotransilvania, represented by Mr. Marius Zahan General Manager, who made BMW cars available for transport of VIP guests and at disposal of the Organizing Committee.

The Authorities of All Europe Taekwon-Do Federation were represented at the cup by Master Tadeusz Loboda – AETF President and ITF Treasurer, Master Jerzy Jedut – AETF Secretary General, Mr. Leonardo Oros Duek – Member of the AETF Board and Master Panagiotis Gialamas – Member of the AETF Revisory Commission. A special guest at the championships was Grand Master Willem Jacob Bos – ITF Director.

from left: Mr. Ciprian Banea, Master Jerzy Jedut AETF Secretary General, Mr. Cosmin Oprescu - President Romanian ITF Taekwon-Do Federation, Master Tadeusz Łoboda AETF President, GM Wilem Jacob Bos ITF Director, Master Alexandru Muresan - Chairman Organizing Committee, Master Panagiotis Gialamas - Member Revisory Commision and Disciplinary Committee, Mr. Mihai Hondru and Mr. Adrian Bibu - Members Organizing Committee

The competition itself was held in a new and very modern sport hall Cluj Polivalent, which did a very positive impression on all attendees. Everyone was impressed and conveyed very enthusiastic opinions about the general design of the hall, its multimedia equipment, the high speed of the internet, big screens which showed the actions from chosen rings as well as from the finals and awarding ceremony.

The organizers has provided separated, grand finals with special music and lights on Friday at the Children and Cadets Cup, impressed many participants, especially the youngest competitors. On Saturday at the European Cup the finals were combined with the official opening ceremony and special dynamic demonstrations of Taekwon-Do and dance group.

The weather was very favourable and made the stay of all guests in Romania very nice and pleasant, however it did not make any negative impact on the competition as the Cluj Polivalent hall had full air condition.

The electronic scoring system was assured by the Bulgarian Association of Taekwon-Do. After some problems with interferences of others systems into the Wi-Fi system, it worked properly and without any more disturbances.

from left: Ms. Malgorzata Rogaczewska - PTA Computer Service, Master Alexander Dunbar - Chairman AETF Tournament & Umpire Committee, Mr. Dariusz Dzaman - PTA Computer Service, Mr. Attila Solti - Member AETF Tournament & Umpire Committee

The championships online system PROMIS was provided by the Polish Taekwon-Do Association and supported by Ms. Malgorzata Rogaczewska and Mr. Dariusz Dzaman. Thanks to their work all people could follow the results of the championships online.

The participants were accommodated in three high standard hotels. The teams stayed in Grand Hotel Napoca and Hotel Belvedere, whereas the umpires and VIPs were accommodated in the West City Hotel.

The competitors presented as always a very high technical level, especially unexpectedly great in rank in the sparring category of children and cadets as well as in many fights in senior categories, for example the final of senior male black belt sparing up to 63 kg.

Below the point and medal classifications of the schools as well as of countries in

Below are listed the point and medal classifications of schools as well as of the countries at

Similar as in case of the children and cadets competition the points classification of schools was the leading one.

**Point Classification for National Associations and schools**
Place	School	Points	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Hellenic Quadrathlon ITF Federation	23	2⁽²⁾	2	4⁽¹⁾
2	All Ukrainian Taekwon-Do Union	22	3	2	8
3	All Russia Taekwon-Do Federation	21	5	1⁽¹⁾	2

**Medal Classification for National Associations and schools**
Place	School	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	All Russia Taekwon-Do Federation	5	1⁽¹⁾	2
2	Belarusian Public Association TKD	4	2	0
3	Club Sportiv Wolf	4	1	1

**Point Classification for Countries**
Place	Country	Points	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Romania	72	12⁽²⁾	9 ⁽²⁾	18
2	Poland	37	4⁽¹⁾	6	13
3	Greece	23	2⁽²⁾	2	4⁽¹⁾

**Medal Classification for Countries**
Place	Country	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Romania	12⁽²⁾	9⁽²⁾	18
2	Russian Fed.	5	1⁽¹⁾	2
3	Poland	4⁽¹⁾	6	13

**Point Classification for National Associations and Schools**
Place	School	Points	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Hungarian ITF Taekwon-do Federation	55	5⁽³⁾	4⁽³⁾	9 ⁽³⁾
2	Bulgarian Association of Taekwon-Do	38	3⁽⁵⁾	5⁽¹⁾	10 ⁽²⁾
3	PUMA Club Sibiu	31	3	4	3

**Medal Classification for National Associations and Schools**
Place	School	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Hungarian ITF Taekwon-do Federation	5⁽³⁾	4⁽³⁾	9⁽³⁾
2	KST Głubczyce	4⁽²⁾	1⁽⁴⁾	1
3	Bulgarian Association of Taekwon-Do	3⁽⁵⁾	5⁽¹⁾	10⁽²⁾

**Point Classification for Countries**
Place	Country	Points	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Romania	139	12⁽⁷⁾	17⁽³⁾	25⁽³⁾
2	Hungary	55	5⁽³⁾	4⁽³⁾	9⁽³⁾
3	Poland	49	9⁽⁷⁾	4⁽⁸⁾	5

**Medal Classification for Countries**
Place	Country	Gold	Silv.	Bron.
1	Romania	12⁽⁷⁾	17⁽³⁾	25⁽³⁾
2	Poland	9⁽⁷⁾	4⁽⁸⁾	5
3	Hungary	5⁽³⁾	4⁽³⁾	9⁽³⁾

The best competitors of the 7th European Cup were in senior age category:
Mr. Konstanty Łomiński from Klub Taekwon-Do Tradycyjnego Lodz (Poland) with two gold medals in Black Belt Pattern 2nd Degree as well as the Black Belt Sparring up to 70 kg.
There was no overall winner among the female senior competitors.

And in juniors age category:
Ms. Adelina Mihai from Liga De Est Club in Romania with two gold medals in Black Belt Pattern 1st Degree and Black belt sparring 55-65 kg.
Mr. Zhulian Marchev from Bulgarian Association of Taekwon-Do with 1 gold medal in colour belt pattern and silver medal colour belt sparring up to 50 kg.

All results and classifications of the 7th European Junior and Senior Taekwon-Do Cup
are available under the link:

All results and classifications of the International Taekwon-Do Cup for Children and Cadets are available under the link:

The previous event on such an international level organized by the Romanian ITF Taekwon-Do Federation was the 12th Junior and 21st Senior European Taekwon-Do Championships held from 12 to 14th May 2006 in Constanta.

10 years later in 2016, despite the fact that it is a year of two important events: 22nd Junior and 31st Senior European Taekwon-Do Championships hosted from 28th April to 1st May 2016 in Tampere, Finland as well as the 6th ITF World Taekwon-Do Cup to be host on 12th -16th October 2016 in Budapest, Hungary and the date of the European Cup has come together with the end of the school year in many countries, the Romanian ITF Taekwon-Do Federation as the host of the European Cup managed to tackle this challenges on a very high organizational level. The new young authorities of the Federation, while not having by now so much experience in hosting such an event put all efforts that the competition went smoothly and all the participants feel comfortably during their stay in Romania.

Below the opinion of the special guest GM Willem Jacob Bos sent to the ITF Board of Directors:
“Dear Mr. President and Board Members,
This is to inform that I have been present at the AETF European Cup held in Cluj Napoca, Romania as you all might know.
I would like to thank the Romanian Taekwon-Do Federation for a great organisation in a fantastic stadium and lovely town.
I would like to thank the Romanian Taekwon-Do Federation to have taken care of me in the most professional way and politeness and also have covered my hotel and meals expenses.
Hopefully one day back for another fantastic event.
My very best regards
GMB
ITF Director”

Invaluable contribution in the success of the cup brought the AETF T&U Committee under the leadership of Master Alexander Dunbar from Scotland and Mr. Attila Solti from Hungary who were supported by the team of 36 umpires.

An interesting fact may be that the European Cup was the first competition in ITF where there were not any protest brought to the umpires during the championship.

The photo documentation of the competition was made as usually by Master Jerzy Jedut and by Ms. Orsolya Vicze-Máthé, the AETF Reporter’s Assistant, who is known of capturing on her photos unique emotions during the competition.

For the Organizing Committee the competition was a very good opportunity to get experience in order to host in the future events of higher rank such as e. g. the European Championship.

The members of the ITF and AETF Board of Directors, who were present in Cluj Napoca, had an opportunity to sightseeing the whole sport hall Cluj Polivalent and check all its sport facilities and possibilities and all stated that the hall fulfil requirements to host event the World Cup or the World Championships. The fact that one of the hotels is in the walking distance to the hall is for sure its advantage as well as the fact that the city Cluj Napoca has its own airport with international connections to many capitals of Europe.

On behalf of the Taekwon-Do community in Europe the AETF would like to thank the Romanian ITF Taekwon-Do Federation and the Organizing Committee for making tremendous efforts in preparing the championships.

We hope that the organization of the 7th Junior and Senior European Taekwon-Do Cup 2016 and the International Taekwon-Do Cup for Children and Cadets will be the next step in the development of Taekwon-Do in Romania.