29.7.2019 / Bulgaria Open

Competing in Bulgaria

The competition in Bulgaria (Plovdiv) was held on the weekend 24th to 25th of November. As our school wanted to participate in the competition, we left Prague on Friday (23rd of November), early in the morning by a plane. The whole flight was without any complications.
After landing in Sofia,Bulgaria we rented cars at the airport and started the last part of our journey to Plovdiv. While driving from the airport we had the opportunity to observe the capital city of Bulgaria and we were rather disappointed by the view. There were ruined buildings everywhere and animals (goats, dogs, sheeps, etc.) running freely in the streets.

When arriving to the sports hall we needed to register and step on the scalefor weight check. Everybody fitted in their weight division so we could continue and check in our hotel. The hotel was about 15 mins away by car and was looked comfortable at first sight. Even the food was very good the whole stay.

First day of the competition started on Saturday with patterns. The pattern competition was not organised well at first. Every ring had their own rules and it took some time to adjust. Our team dominated the patterns and was rewarded with 5 gold and 2 silver medals.

After patterns, the competition continued with sparring divisions. It was significantly harder to compete in sparring than the patterns, but we achieved some medals against the rivals. The long day ended by returning to the hotel to gain some energy and strenght for the next day.

The following day started with sparrings again and it was merely that difficult as the day before. All of our competitors were supporting each other throughout the second competition day. Also we reached to some more medals on Sunday.

In the evening we experienced the official ending of competition and announcement of results.

On the day of departure we made a trip to look around Plovdiv, the second biggest city of Bulgaria. We checked a few monuments and we visited the amphitheater, where the Finals of World Championship were held in 2015. We took some pictures there and soon after that we left to eat something before leaving the country. At the airport we returned the rented cars and cotinued to departures. The flight was smooth on our way home too and we landed exactly on time.

I would rate our trip as a succesful one, because all the competitors took placing in the competition and brought home some medals.