European Cup 2019 Report

INTA members from the IFSC Force club recently travelled to Sochi, Russia to participate in the 10th edition of the European Cup, over the June Bank holiday weekend. This adventure of a lifetime was preceded by the club running their annual summer camp in Prague in collaboration with the Czech National Taekwon-do Union. This year, the summer camp served the double purpose of preparing competitors for the upcoming European Cup, and the intensity level was therefore turned up a notch.

Prague – Training camp:

The camp was the most successful to date, with a total of 13 people from Dublin flying over to Prague. We all arrived in Prague on Thursday evening, and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. Some of us flew back to Dublin while the competitors took a plane to Moscow, their last stop before Sochi. The schedule for Prague was packed: training every day for 2h30 from Friday to Monday, with a double session on Saturday. To balance the intensity of the camp, the organisers took care to include social events where everyone got together in a friendly atmosphere.

The training began on Friday afternoon, with a productive 2h30 session where members of our club got acquainted or re-acquainted with the Czechs. Everyone was still recovering from the late flight the day before and the sudden change in temperature, and we were all happy to tick in early. On Saturday we had a double session, followed by a well-deserved get-together barbecue hosted by our Czech friends, which included horse riding and group games. We went training once the next day and then went for sightseeing in Prague city, with a nice river cruise down the Vlatva. Our last session was on Monday afternoon after an earlier trip to Prague Aquapark, where club members got to relax in the water and try the numerous slides.

All in all, Prague was a very positive experience and really helped us get ready for the European Cup. We had the opportunity to fight some of the strongest Czech Black belts and practice highly technical one-on-one drills. Kamil corrected our patterns and was an excellent teacher, while Jakub challenged us with his strong kicks and high flexibility. His Black belt cousin Lucia trained against Deirdre, Katie and Shirley and pushed them to their limits.

Russia – The European Cup:

The camp made for a very active and enjoyable few days before we commenced on the next part of our journey to Moscow, where we stayed for two days doing some sight-seeing, including trips to Red Square and the Kremlin. We were all very impressed by the golden cupolas of the St Basil’s Cathedral sparkling in the summer sun, and got very lucky with the weather and the lack of tourists. Pictures clearly don’t do the Red Square justice, as it looked much bigger than in pictures, and the Kremlin looked like a fortress with officials all round. We also got to see some of the most beautiful stations of the Moscow subway, and left with a very positive impression of the city overall.

On Thursday we flew to Sochi and arrived at our impressive accommodation at Interminsky beside the Sochi Olympic village which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. The amazing infrastructure, the location of the competition at the iceberg palace, and the excellent work of the organising committee lead to one of the best competitions we have ever attended. It was obvious that this event meant a lot to the Russian ITF Federation, and that they wanted to showcase the best of Russia. The Opening ceremony was grandiose, and the hotel where competitors stayed was very high standard as well. It had several pools and light fountains, and the façade of the buildings were also lit up at night along with the roof of the stadium.

The level of the competition itself was outstanding, with many incredibly skilled participants in all categories. The standard was high across the board; and while watching the patterns competitors we thought many people there would easily be able to compete for World medals! Several world class competitors were there such as Ekaterina Kozlachova and Bartosz Slodowski, and we even got to meet the Polish team. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, some going as far as lending us spare footpads for Michael after we realised he didn’t have them, 10 minutes before the start of his fight…

Results:

IFSC Force did incredibly well at the European Cup, and getting the 3rd place in both the Club and the Country Senior classifications was beyond our dreams. Everyone gave it their all and tried their hardest against a really strong competition.

Competitors in patterns were so strong we could not get a single medal, try as we might. Sparring was another affair, however, and where we earned all our medals.

Deirde and Cathy competed in the same category, and clinched the Gold and the Bronze medal respectively. It was a very hard fought for medal for Deirdre. The quarterfinal was probably the toughest, with Deirdre losing 0:4 after first round against an excellent Belorussian competitor. However Deirdre’s outstanding fitness and determination carried her through, earning her the second European Cup Sparring Gold medal!

Shirley was competing in a different category, and won herself a Bronze medal after a brave performance. In fact, although Shirley lost her semis on points she made such an impression on her counterpart that the competitor stated that ‘she had enough’ and did not enter the final!

We also tried our hand at colour belt Team sparring with our three ladies and they brought home the Silver medal! It was so close in the final - the scores were leveled after the first two competitors, and after a tough fight we ended up with 2:1:1 against us in the third fight... A great performance nevertheless.

The men also made us proud with strong sparring performances!

It was Sparring Bronze for John in the -78 black belt sparring category, actually a heartbreaking result. John fought amazingly and won his first two fights in great style, and in the semi-finals he was pit against the eventual winner. John was leading comfortably until the last few seconds when scores somehow flipped from 4:0 for John to 2:1:1 for his opponent...

Michael also deserves special recognition for fighting the outstanding international competitor Dimitry Cherkasov and living to tell the tale!

We can now say that the European Cup ended up being the experience of a lifetime for us. Our club achieved its best results to date, and earned several medals as well as official recognition on the larger European scene. It also helped us get to know other competitors from countries from across the continent, and we had the opportunity to measure our skills against many different styles of sparring. We can't wait for Slovenia next year!