Invitation to XII Open European Taekwon-Do Cup – Poland 2023
12th AETF Open European Cup and International Taekwon-Do Cup for ChildrenRead More
Visit of the President of the FCST to the Minister of Sports of Paraguay
On Thursday, February 16, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. a work meeting was held in Asuncion, Paraguay, involving the Minister of Sports of the Republic of Paraguay, Mr. Diego Galeano Harrison, the members of the Executive Committee of FETREP and the President of the
Central and South American Taekwon-Do Federation ITF (FCST), Master Abelardo Benzaquén.
On the occasion, the FETREP directors presented their institutional project for the current year. On the
occasion, Master Benzaquén was received by the Minister of Sports, paying his respects and presenting to the Minister a brief review of the steps being taken at the official level to update all documents of the FCST, the approval of its new Statute – updated to the Law of Sport of Paraguay – and holding its Annual Ordinary and Extraordinary Assembly as well as the elections of the Board of Directors on May 12 at the Pan American Championship 2023 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
On the other hand, Minister Diego Galeano Harrison committed his personal and institutional support so that the procedures that are being carried out can be completed soon and without inconveniences.
After the official meeting, Master Benzaquén shared a working lunch with members of the Board of Directors of FETREP and then formalized various legal actions related to the FCST, including the registration of the FCST trademark in Paraguay.
The President of FCST, Master Benzaquén and the members of the Board of Directors thank the Executive Committee of FETREP and especially Dr. Fernando Arrúa León, President of FETREP and Legal Advisor of FCST for the collaboration provided. They also thank the President of the ITF, Grand Master Paul Weiler for his permanent support to the management of this Board of Directors. They extend their gratitude to Master Leo Oros Duek, who forms a liaison between FCST and the ITF Executive Committee.
On behalf and representation of the FCST Board of Directors:
Master Abelardo Benzaquén, FCST President
FCST BoD Members
Grand Master Raúl Sánchez
Sabum Nim Tulio Flores
Grand Master Omar Merodio
Sabum Nim Gustavo Livon
Sabum Nim Brian Buck
Sabum Nim Fernando Arrúa (FCST Legal Advisor)
Visit of the President of the FCST to the Minister of Sports of ParaguayRead More
IIC 164 Orlando – Report
On February 10 – 12, 2023, ITF America was host for the International Instructor Course #164 held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort in Orlando Florida. This event was well attended with 209 participants from 12 countries. In addition to the United States, participants arrived from Canada, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Israel, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ireland, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Honduras and Cuba. The result being the largest IIC held in the USA since 2002!
IIC 164 was taught by Technical Committee members GM Hector Marano, GM Ung Kim Lan and GM Pierre Laquerre along with Master Leo Oros Duek, who introduced the Adaptive Course to the participants for the first time in the USA by reviewing adaptive teaching methods for those with special needs.
On Friday, GM Laquerre opened the IIC with a lively and fun warm-up by introducing a variety of partner drills that challenged them with their balance, strength, control and endurance. This was followed by GM Marano and GM Lan teaching color belt patterns.
On Saturday, Black Belt Patterns, Step Sparring and Self-Defense training were covered during the 1st session, followed be the Adaptive Course in the afternoon. The participants really enjoyed the partner drills introduced by Master Duek on how to teach basic techniques to those with special needs and also how to communicate with them in a positive way. On Saturday evening, we celebrated with one another at the banquet, had a wonderful meal, some entertainment by the musical group JAGMAC and some dancing.
The seminar wrapped up on Sunday with high rank patterns and a spirited sparring session with drills led by GM Lan, followed by a series of stretching and flexibility exercises by GM Laquerre. The seminar came to a close with the presentation of promotion certificates, IIC participation certificates and pictures with the Technical Committee.
A new edition of the Open Dutch
The Open Dutch 2023 edition was held on Saturday the 28th of January in our home city of Helmond once again. Although registration started relatively slow, we still ended up with approximately 650 competitors, more than 1200 registrations, from 88 teams coming from 18 countries from all over the world. Because of the high quality of the competitors it was described by many as a mini European Championship, with mini referring to the fact that it is a 1-day tournament!
The atmosphere was very friendly throughout the day, although we witnessed some extremely competitive matches! As always the head of umpires was GM Coos van den Heuvel and sabum Emiel Kloor. GM Harry Vones was responsible for the Sportdata system. Of course we had many volunteers, referees, first aid team, and sponsors, whom contributed greatly to success of the tournament, and we want to thank you for that as we could not have done this without your help!
We’ve seen too many great matches and finals to name them all, but some did stand out, so we want to call them out. The winner of the “overall best A class” was Solovey Team from Ukraine, closely followed by Team West Norway. The winner of “overall best B class” was Team Dolny Slask from Poland, closely followed by NE-Sports from Wales. In patterns, competitors from Norway shined, whereas in sparring Scotland scored really well in the senior category!
Another thing that stood out was the fact that the female senior competitors from The Netherlands managed to win 4 classes:
Yra Labrie (-56), Sam Delrock (-62), Maartje Gubbels (-68), and Nina Meppelder (+68).
Filippos Filippidis from Team Dolny Slask (Poland) managed to win both his individual poule as well as the overall class, the same goes for Sam Delrock, Nina Meppelder, and Kayden Lingers. This is a huge achievement, and once again congratulations from our side!
Before I forget, as many of you have already asked, the 2024 edition is scheduled to take place on Saturday the 27th of January 2024! Note it down, and share it with your teammates, as we hope to see many of you again next year!
Report from the 1st ITF Elite Stage & Competition
From January 12th to 15th a unique and new event took place in the beautiful La Nucia, Spain, the ITF Elite Stage & Competition. This event was the concept of Grandmaster Bos and Sabum Paco Ferrando and came to fruition following discussions at the ITF World Cup in Koper and the wish to provide more opportunities for development for ITF athletes and to put the athlete at the centre of our focus as they are the future of our martial art and sport. The event was held with the support of the AETF led by President, Master Leonardo Oros Duek and saw national team athletes, coaches and umpires from 8 countries (Spain, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia, England, Norway, Netherlands and Israel) come together for four days of sharing ideas, training, learning from each other and enjoying our wonderful martial art in a very friendly and warm atmosphere.
Each day of the event was packed with high level training, with patterns & sparring sessions happening in parallel where the athletes could freely choose which activity to train in. The training sessions were led by some of Europe’s most well known coaches and each session was coordinated by Grandmaster Bos who was always on hand to support, offer advice and insight and give input in the sessions being led by the team.
Day one started with Master Tomaz Barada leading the warm up in typical high intensity fashion which prepared the athletes for the activities ahead.
Pattern training took place with Master Stephen Ryan from Ireland & Master Jose Luis Diego from Spain and supported by Sabum Nim David Atencia from Spain. The session focused on physical & mental preparation for patterns competition and building performance, with the clear message that pattern competitors must treat themselves as and train as athletes in the same way that an elite fighter does.
In parallel to this was sparring with Grandmaster Willy van de Mortel & Master Johann de Silva focusing on movement, timing, controlling space & the use of the blitz to initiate and build scores. Following this was a second sparring session led by Master Barada and GM Van de Mortel, introducing some very effective hand and kicking combinations which pushed the athletes out of their comfort zones.
In the evening the athletes & coaches were able to relax and enjoy a walk along the seafront which was a close distance to the hotel.
Day two opened with the presence of the Mayor of La Nucia & the President of the Royal Taekwon-Do Federation as well as former ITF Secretary General, Master Juan Ferrando, who all gave a warm welcome to all participants and reiterated their support for Sabum Ferrando and FEST.
Day two training sessions were again split into two elements running in parallel where the athletes could choose freely which activity to train in. The patterns training was led by Sabum Silvia Farigu & Master Christian Oriolani from Italy and Master Jose Luis Diego from Spain where a lot of useful exercises were shared for developing kicking ability, core strength & explosiveness as well as many technical tips and methods to improve technical content and the overall performance.
On the sparring side multiple sessions took place, with modules being led by Master Stephen Ryan from Ireland, Master Tomaz Barada from Slovenia, Master Stephen Cooley from Ireland, Master Johann De Silva from England and Grandmaster Willy van de Mortel from the Netherlands. The sessions focused on a wide range of topics to improve sparring performance, from tactical development, building momentum and scores, ring craft, controlling space, countering effectively, the use of constrained sparring scenarios, exercises for conditioning and effective sparring drills. At the end of each session athletes were able to ask questions and get further advice.
Day two finished with a discussion on season planning, goal setting & performance profiling, where each athlete was given the opportunity to make an analysis of their current level, discuss the attributes of the world champions present at the event and discuss goals to set for the season ahead. There were many engaging discussions with the World & European Champions present offering insight from their experiences and very interactive discussions among the groups working on the exercise.
Day three was competition day but with a difference, the focus was to allow the athletes to get as many opportunities to compete against other athletes and other countries as possible and the athletes relished the chance to get mat time against other high level performers without the pressure of a European or World Championships and where they could try some of the exercises from the previous days to challenge themselves in a mix of individual & team events in both patterns and sparring. The competition day was again coordinated by Grandmaster Bos who kept things ticking along smoothly and the coaching team were able to give feedback to the athletes following each performance in sparring and patterns.
During the lunch break of day three our host Sabum Paco Ferrando arranged for a large Paella that was enjoyed by the more than 150 athletes, coaches and umpires under the January Sun in a beautiful ambience.
During day three we had the honour of having the full AETF Board of Directors present to view the event along with AETF President Master Duek and special guest ITF President, Grandmaster Paul Weiler, who both gave speeches and encouraging words to the young athletes for their efforts. Some small gifts were also given from the AETF to the coaching team and to the coordinators GM Bos & Sabum Ferrando as well as to Master Juan Ferrando as a token of appreciation..
Following the lunch break on day three the competition format changed to team events where teams were made by mixing different nations together in both patterns & sparring. It was a pleasure to watch the elite level on display throughout the day.
During each of the days during the down time, the group enjoyed fun social activities together as well as making funny videos of their experience at the event.
On the last day the athletes again enjoyed some light training where they could get further feedback from the coaching team as well as video analysis and group analysis of the whole event. Finally four beautiful belts which were sponsored by Top Ten, were presented to four athletes chosen for their performances during the event, taking into account their level of performance, social engagement and embodiment of the spirit of the Elite Stage. The event closed with warm words from Grandmaster Bos & Sabum Paco Ferrando, thanking all involved for their efforts and support for the 1st ITF Elite Stage & Competition. We are already looking forward to the second edition on January 11th to 14th 2024, book the dates in your Calendar so you don’t miss out.
Follow the ITF Elite Stage on Instagram for more info.
The ITF World Championships in Finland
After intensive preparation through many Zoom meetings and alternating correspondence between organising committee of ITF Finland and the ITF Tournament, Umpire, and IT Committee, the final version of the invitation for the most important sporting event of the ITF in 2023 was completed and published a few days ago. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved for their efforts.
After 1587 days or 4.5 years without a phyical ITF World Championships after the last ITF World Championships in Inzell, Germany, in 2019, the upcoming competitions in Tampere, Finland, have high expectations and anticipation is very high after the event was postponed from 2021 to 2023 for well-known reasons. Time is pressing as there are only about 7 months left until the start of this major event. But we are on schedule everywhere and fully motivated!
As you have probably already noticed, the event will be held according to the extended competition rules that were tested last year. This means that for the first time in ITF history, the event will be held and scored in three categories: The 22nd World Championships (18+ years), the 16th Junior World Championships (15-17 years), and the 1st Pre-Junior World Championships (12-14 years). Please take this into account when submitting your entries to the committees!
I wish you all a successful preparation in every respect and look forward to seeing you again at the World Championships in Finland.
With best regards.
GM Paul Weiler
ITF President
