27.5.2013 / Sonkal Open

Crowd of competitors and nice successes

Czech Taekwon-do federation competition of first half of year were finished by meeting of talented youth organization in Nymburk. Sonkal with history of organizing Prague local competition for more than 10 years used again nice hall in Petřiny
to organize this year´s Sonkal Open.

More than 125 competitors from 9 schools took part - Dan-Gun, GBHS, Chon-Ji, Kerberos, Kwang Myong, Panter, Pardubice, Silla and home Sonkal. We are thankful to 4 referees from Tong-Il České Budějovice (South Bohemia) who travelled to Prague from early morning to help us keep high standard of competition.

After morning registration, weighing and opening ceremony, kids patterns started. Because system of competition was everyone fights everyone (not KO system) many schools used Sonkal Open as testing for new competitors when even not so experienced ones had more duels than one. Technical problem with sleeping printer is solved smootly (nearly one car accident - translator and driver of "bringotherprinterhereassoonaspossible" car) and juniors are showing their skills.

After lunch break (referees had tasty lunch tegether in near pizzeria) the most succesful kid competitors fot their trophies - male Petr Pros (Sonkal) and for female Samantha Tran (GBHS). I have to mention that our method of giving medals just after finishing category by chief referee on tatami saves time and keep nice ceremony.
Seniors are closing the days and despite of fact that fights are sometimes really tough (more because of not enough experience than agressivity), but there are still some matches of the highest quality.

The most succesful competitors in higher age categories are:
• Marina Baranová (GBHS) – female junior
• Jiří Huml (Sonkal) – male junior
• Jana Kovářová (Sonkal) – female senior
• Tomáš Vodička (Sonkal) – male senior

The most succesful schools are:
1. Sonkal 26-17-11 (gold – silver – bronze)
2. GBHS 7-11-9
3. Dan-Gun 5-7-4

We finish slightly before 7 PM with feeling that this day was worth of all effort. We are looking forward to Sonkal Open 2014 and hope to meet you there again.

I want to sincerely thank to all referees for their all-day long hard work of high quality.