22.6.2017 / Sonkal OpenSonkal Open - how to handle a crowd
Our Taekwon-do school has organised local Prague competitions for several years and in many aspects it's aa routine competition. Few years ago we started league system, which is more time-demanding, but is really good for competitors to gain more experience. Last year we maneged around 200 competitors, but in
the year 2017 a big challenge came up - 279 competitors. That is a solid crowd of taekwondists.
In the beginning I would like to mention high competition of people who arrived to school sports hall in Prague - Petriny. Many current and past members of Czech National Team fought each other and made medals harder to get for other competitors. I. degree senior pattern category can be an example. Medal places were filled with Dalibor Pantlik (Frydek-Mistek), Ondrej Svoboda (Dan-Gun) and Jiry Novak (Sonkal). Top competition was in junior female +64 kg category - trio of World and Europe champions - Tereza Stekerova (Sonkal), Anezka Curdova (Trebon) and Petra Jichova (Silla). So the spectators, experienced and also beginner taekwondists could see world-level matches on their own sight.
The start of the competition was delayed a little bit due to complicated grouping of youth competitors. Creating groups for 54 boys and 25 girls really takes some time. Ondrej Faltin tested simillar situation as on Czech Republic Championship, where he had to win over 7 opponents to reach gold medal in patterns. This time the blue-belt category had 31 competitors divided into 8 groups. Winners of these groups challenged each other in elimination system.
Time which was needed to complete youth categories worried me a lot. I thought the afternoon will be very long, but high number of referees brought calming down and fast afternoon part of the competition. The end came right after 6 pm with cup awarding ceremony. After leaving the sports hall at 7 pm, everybody was happy it went so smoothly.
During the competition, new electronic scoring system bought us a lot of time. Under the supervision of it's creator, Jakub Geyer from Tong-Il, referees got more familiarized with it and amount of errors got close to zero.
Cups for best individuals went to:
• Junior male, Dalibor Pantlik (TKD Frydek-Mistek), 2-0-0
• Junior female, Bara Sebestova (Karvina), 2-0-0
• Senior male, Tomas Vodicka (Sonkal), 2-0-0
• Senior female, Martina Kopecka (Silla), 1-1-0
• Youth male, Ondrej Faltin (Sonkal), 2-0-0
• Youth female, Klara Sebestova (Karvina), 2-0-0
Cups for best schools:
• Taekwon-Do ITF Sonkal Praha, 15-9-6
• Karvina, 9-4-5
• Tong-Il, 7-3-1