On the 10th and 11th of December 2016 in Kyiv, Ukraine took place the 3rd Open Cup of Kyiv under the name: "KYIV OPEN Fight Challenge 2016". The competition was held in the Kyiv State Maritime Academy named after hetman Petro Konashevich- Sahaydachniy (KSMA) located on the bank of the Dnipro River.

The competition gathered over 300 athletes from 11 regions of Ukraine and guests from Belarus. The championship was held in two categories: sparring and team sparring.

At the Official Opening Ceremony on Saturday, the 10th of December, the athletes and guests were impressed by the motivational speech of Mr. Valentin Zorba, the President of the All Ukrainian Taekwon-Do Union and Mr. Aleksander Kulinchenko, the Vice-Rector of the KSMA. Mr. Valentin Zorba also awarded athletes and their coaches for the representation on international arenas:

- "Kychko TKD Club" Sport Club, Artem Kychko (a head coach), Bohdan Veselyi, Rolan Halishchuk-Ramazanov, Oleksandr Zaiets, Andrey Kryvulia, Mihailo Mishchuk, Yakov Petrukhin, Dmytro Rudenko;
- "Maks Sport TKD Club" Sport Club: Igor Maksimenko (a head coach), Egor Evseev, Nazar Cherednichenko;
- "True Way TKD Club" Sport Club: Anastasia Svynar (a head coach), Natalia Havryliuk, Oksana Nesenenko, Natalia Shklyarchuk, Galina Tsybenko.

"The Open Cup of Kyiv competition has become traditional as it took place for the third time. The tournament has its own style, exclusive rewards and prizes for the best athletes. But we wish that our guests receive pleasure not only from the competition but also from our city. The Kyiv city is famous for its architecture and chestnuts beauty flowering, so we decided to reschedule it for May. We will be glad to see you here next year "- said the organizers of the competition – Mr. Artem Kychko and Mr. Igor Maksimenko.

Here is the Overall School Ranking:
1st place - "KASKAD" Sport Club (Minsk, Belorussia)
2nd place - "Dan-Gun" Sport Club (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
3rd place - "Kropivnitskiy team" (Kropivnitskiy, Ukraine)

More photos are available under the link: https://www.facebook.com/kyivopentkd

Best regards,
Oleg Solovey
Vice-president
All Ukrainian TKD Union, VI Dan