Benidorm, Thursday 1 October 2026 – Day 3 of the ITF World Cup 2026 was the busiest of the week so far, with 45 categories decided across all eleven rings. The senior Pattern finals in Ring 1 drew the biggest fields of the day, with up to 85 competitors in a single division, while the Pre-Juniors filled the sparring rings from morning to late afternoon.
Solovey Team in top form
The ITF World Cup is a club event – not natioanl teams of countries competing but individual teams. And on the third day of the 2026 edition it was the Solovey Team of Ukraine who finished the day as the most successful club: five golds, all in different weight categories of the Pre-Juniors (12–14 years) sparring. Sergii Sochavskyi won the Pre-Junior Male 4th–1st Gup up to 40 kg category on a podium where his club also took silver and a bronze, and Anna Dombrovska led a Solovey one-two in Pre-Junior Female 4th–1st Gup 48–52 kg. Ivan Marchenko, Nadiia Mukanova and Anna Voitovych added the club’s other three titles.
Pattern finals
ITF Japan won three Adult (35-45 years) Pattern titles: Naoto Fujimoto in Male 2nd Dan, Shunsuke Maezumi in Male 2nd–1st Gup and Yoshiki Yamamoto in Male 4th–3rd Gup. TMT New Zealand took two, through Mason Holroyd in Male 1st Dan and Brenda Trotter in Female 3rd Dan. Micaela Perez Aquilante of Ferraro Noelia won the largest category of the day, Female 1st Dan with 85 competitors, Dora Ernesta Ivasuc of ACS Dorado took Female 2nd Dan, Tobias Esteche of the Paraguayan federation won Male 3rd Dan, and Honey Ospina-Gomez of De Silva TKD won Female 4th–6th Dan. In the team event, Club Taekwon-Do Yong-Gam Molins de Rei won the Junior Pre-Arranged Sparring final from a field of 44 teams.
A double for Kalmar
Erik Attila Kalmar of ACS Wolf – Oradea from Romania was one of the athletes of the day, winning both the Pre-Junior Male Special Technique title and the Pre-Junior Male 1st–3rd Dan Sparring 50–55 kg category.
Power Breaking and Special Technique
In Ring 2, the Power Breaking titles went to Steven Arroyo of Affinity Taekwon-Do (Senior Male; 36–45 years), Niclas Holmblad of Torslanda TKD (Veteran Male; 46+ years), Cecilia Brizuela of GM Mercado Fausto (Senrio Female; 36–45 years) and Lee Ti Davidson of Gnesta TKD (Veteran Female; 46+ years). In Ring 3, Oleksandr Tarasenko of the All-Ukrainian Taekwon-Do Union won Veteran Male Special Technique, and Gabriela Daykola of Klub Wschodnich Sportów Walki Taewo Warszawa won Junior Female Special Technique.
Be YOU. Bravely
At 18:30, after the last finals, the women of the World Cup were invited to the “Be YOU. Bravely” group photo outside of the arena. This event, highlighted the strenghts of the many girls and women and their multitudes of roles in the ITF and our martial arts.
Day 3 in numbers
- Categories decided: 45. The Adult Male (18–35 years) Pattern 4th–6th Dan pools were also held today, and the final follows on Friday at the Gala in Ring 1.
- Most successful club: Solovey Team (5 golds), followed by ITF Japan (3).
- Two golds each: ACS Wolf – Oradea, All-Ukrainian Taekwon-Do Union, Irish Taekwon-Do Association, ITF Uzbekistan, Tajikistan Traditional Taekwon-Do Federation and TMT New Zealand.
- Biggest category: Adult Female (18–35 years) Pattern 1st Dan, with 85 competitors.
Full results: sportdata.org – 10th ITF Taekwon-Do World Cup 2026
Preview World Cup Day 4: Finals Friday and the World Cup Gala
