The 2nd Dolomia Italian Open, an international competition open to ITF Taekwondo athletes of all levels and categories, was held on November 12 in the PalaBorsani Sports Hall in Legnano, near Milan.

The tournament has been organized and directed by Grand Master Wim Bos and Master Orlando Saccomanno and took place in two different halls. The main hall, with 5 squares and one warming up area, was reserved for juniors and seniors, the second area with 3 squares has been used for children's competitions.

All rings in the main hall were equipped with digital scoring system supplied by Master Vones.

ACQUA DOLOMIA www.acquadolomia.it, THE WATER OF THE DOLOMITES, was the main sponsor bringing prestige and support together with the technical sponsors who contributed at various levels to the success of the competition: MIGHTYFIST www.doboks.com, NIKKO-SPORT www.nikkoshop.it/ and FUJI-MAE www.fujisportitalia.com

Mr. Mikhail Vorontsov developed a very successful online system HandleSport www.handlesport.com to manage all registrations, communications, time schedules and results. Master Stefano Minotti, Chairman of the Italian Referees, supervised and directed the umpires together with Master Giovanni Cecconato in charge of all children competitions.

426 competitors from 13 European countries entered the competition: England, France, Holland, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Wales, Hungary, Norway, Belgium and Italy . It has been a real pleasure to meet many friends from all over Europe and to share such a nice atmosphere. The children competition reserved lots of fun and excitement thanks to the cheering parents and coaches.

A feature of this competition is the Elite-Pro category, dedicated to the national team members and to black belts that wish to compete with them, whose winners have chance to fight for the title of Grand Champion.

All finals were spectacular, especially in the three Grand Champion divisions (Male -70kg, Male +70 kg, Female one cat.). The three winners were awarded with a "package" consisting of one dobok presented by Mightyfist, one pair of hands and feet safeties presented by Nikko-Sport, one training suite presented by Fuji-Mae and a money prize of 500 Euros each presented by the organizers.

A special note to Anna Pinton winning the Grand Champion Italian Open title for the second consecutive time and confirming her great fighting spirit and preparation.

First three classified clubs:

1) TEAM DOLNY SLASK-POLAND
2) ASD RISING HWARANG BUCCINASCO-ITALY
3) EXTREME FIGHTERS ROMA-ITALY
All results are online http://www.handlesport.com/event/results?id_event=3

The event organization and logistics gave everyone the opportunity to compete with high level athletes thanks to the presence of many members of various European National Teams as well as many international champions.

GM Bos, Master Saccomanno and all Italian competitors wish to meet all again next year for the 3rd Italian Open edition (18th November 2017).

Tiziana Mimmocchi
Responsabile Comunicazione FITAE-ITF ASD