The excitement, passion and desire to become someone important in world taekwondo is the goal of athletes and coaches. Time flies and each event is a story full of anecdotes but also of sporting glory.
This time in the European Clubs, Croatia reached the top through the professional team of (Kyrougi) “Marjan”. The Croats won the European Club Championships (G1) tournament that brought together competitors from four (04) continents, some of them world and Olympic champions.
Tournament
This intercontinental event was held at the Hotel Marinela in the capital of Bulgaria under the organization of the Taekwondo Federation of that country and the technical direction of the European Taekwondo Union (ETU) for a full week.
Six (06) competition areas with the most decorated judges in the world, some with Olympic and global experience, worked hard for four consecutive days. The Poomsae modality also saw action on April 29.
Featured teams
Croatian winners include world and European champion Lena Stojković, as well as Paško Božić and Mila Mastelić, who won gold, while Lovre Brečić, Bruna Duvančić and Josip Bilić Pavlinović won silver. In the senior team rankings, Marjan is first with 582 points, ahead of the Moroccan team with 362 points and Azerbaijani Gilan with 350 points.
Officials ETU – WT
The competition was overseen by Miklos Patakfalvy, WT Technical Delegate, Kostas Kaloudis, Referee Chairman, Chakir Chelbat, CSB Member, Reza Zadehmohammad, CSB Member, Mohamned Argubi, CSB Member and Ali Sagirkaya, Game Chairman, and Sports Director, Ioannis Mouroutsos.
They agreed that all current arbitration criteria and regulations were applied.
In total, 380 clubs and 1,600 registered athletes, coaches, kyrougi & poomsae athletes and officials participated. There was medical attention in the competition, OVR system and Daedo electronic protectors were used.
Taekwondo Stars
Olympic and world athletes such as the British Jade Jones (double Olympic gold medal), Bianca Cook, three-time world champion, world number one (01) Joan Jorquera (Esp), Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (TUN), Avishag Semberg ( Isr) were part of the medalists of the joust that had its climax in the G1 event, a scoring tournament for Paris 2024 that featured seasoned competitors from Morocco, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Japan, among other international powers of the discipline.
Effort
The European club tournament has surprised everyone by the number of participants in Cadet, Junior and Senior. The President of the Federation of Bulgaria, Slavi Binev thanked everyone for his presence. He praised the high level of the athletes and indicated that they continue working on the promotion of Taekwondo with the support of the European Taekwondo Union. He wished all the athletes luck in the next World TKD Championships while thanking ETU for all the support.
Bulgaria has hosted great competitions, any situation will be corrected to give the best service. That is the idea in the Taekwondo family.
Official Results: http://www.europetaekwondo.org
Carlos Hernández / Wannes Laleman
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