Report from Open Challenge Cup, Belgium

 

The Open Challenge Cup was held on 28th May 2006 in the beautiful City of Gent in Belgium. Over 180 junior and senior competitors participated from six countries; Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Moldova.

First of all we must compliment the championship organiser Mr. Johan Van Hecke, on the high quality sports facilities and accommodation which he and his team arranged. The international competitors who travelled to the event had the chance to stay in the Sports Hotel at Blaarmeersen, which is modelled on an Olympic Village. This is a superb newly constructed hotel especially for international athletes adjacent to very high quality sports facilities, including a restaurant with an excellent menu designed specifically for athletes by sports nutritionists.

The sports hotel is located next to the sports centre which is very convenient for the competitors. The organisation of the championship was very professional; the competition took place on 3 areas each 9x9m matted competition rings. The finals all took place on the centre ring and were televised by the local television station. Unfortunately the organisers had some problems with the computer system which caused some delays for the senior black belt divisions. Aside from this administrative difficulty this high level of organisation for an open championships is a very good promotion for ITF Taekwon-Do in Europe.

The event began with the junior categories, there were some fantastic performances from the young competitors showing good technical standard in both pattern and sparring from all the participating clubs.

In the senior category there were some very exciting matches especially the bouts between Ivan Clement (Netherlands) versus Donal O'Donoghue (Ireland) and Patrick Crevecoeur (Belgium) versus Karl Kelly (Ireland). The spectators made a great atmosphere and were very motivated to see high level Taekwon-Do at its best.

Some very good coaches brought teams to the event, including; Mr. Willy Van De Mortel, Netherlands, Mr. Chiel Rombout, Netherlands, Mr. Pascal Raeijmaekers, Belgium and Mr. Emmanuel Fantacci, Belgium. The tournament was attended by a team from the Irish Taekwon-Do Association (ITA) Eastern Region Development Academy.

Team members; Keith Cooley, Shane Kearns, Shona Dowd, Seamus Lehane, Karl Maxwell, Alan McQuillian, Gary Hynes, Niall Cleary, Conor Cooley, Karl Hynes, Hayden Devoy and Gareth McGrath.

Coaches; Mr. Cooley, Mr. O'Donoghue and Mr. Kelly

Senior Competitors	Club	Result
Donal O'Donoghue	Mulhuddart	Gold (1)
Karl Kelly	Ratoath	Silver (1)
Junior Competitors	Club	Result
Keith Cooley	Ratoath	Gold (2)
Shane Kearns	Rivervalley	Silver (2)
Shona Dowd	Ratoath	Silver (1) Bronze (1)
Seamus Lehane	Ratoath	Silver (1) Bronze (1)
Karl Maxwell	Rivervalley	Silver (1)
Alan McQuillian	Rivervalley	Silver (1)
Gary Hynes	Ratoath	Silver (1)
Niall Cleary	Rivervalley	Bronze (2)
Conor Cooley	Ratoath	Bronze (2)
Karl Hynes	Ratoath	Bronze (1)