Sonkal at world championship

Monika’s point of view:
Everything had started on Monday at Ruzyně Prague airport, where we spent few ours waiting, checking in and again waiting. It took about 2 hours of flight to reach Moscow. I don’t even know why we were so naive to looking forward modern airport with shops and restaurants. In contrast there were just broken walls, stink and hordes of people sleeping on English newspapers. Because we had to wait 4 hours there, there was no solution, but to find some newspaper and sit on old carpets. Then another 4 hours flight to Tashkent, another waiting for visa and filling in forms. After Moscow airport we were realistic and did not look forward to see our hotel, but what a surprise, everything pretty clean…..shower…bed…the best part of this day. Our first food in Tashkent was another surprise, both potatoes and meat had the same smell, ok…I ate melon only. Our great medic Hanka told us later what to be afraid of when eating local food, in summary we shouldn’t eat anything :o) But there were few of us that tried local cuisine and spent rest of our trip on toilet or asking for toilet paper.

We went to city second day, government part was nice, clean, rich. Rest of Tashkent was full of people with gold teeth and begging mothers with small children.

Tournament itself started on Thursday. Organization of event was another surprise – it was horrible. We expected experienced referees and good equipment (especially special techniques post!!!). I personally didn’t like opinion of referees in team patterns when they favourited „lazy“ rhythm of Russian team. It was also strange that referees did not care about attacking tool used in special techniques, if you moved the board you took points. They also allowed Korean competitor to touch the board and improve its position (it is against rules).

Despite all of this I have to say that I really enjoyed this week. I want to honestly thank to Ondra Vrábel and national team coaches for taking care of me and also Sonkal members who wished me luck and motivated me here on our website.

Aneta’s point of view:

When I was told that this year World championship will be at Uzbekistan, I did not know what to think about it. Most people kept saying that it is poor and kind of ugly country, but there were also some of my friends who were saying the opposite. So I was pretty confused :o)v

September 15 – This day was just about flying to Moscow and then to Tashkent and it made us totally exhausted. First surprise came in Moscow, waiting for our plane to Tashkent (Monča mentioned it above). Special bus waited for us in Tashkent to bring us to hotel, but without our luggage – second surprise. I was really scared how our hotel will look like after I saw the airport, but afterwards I have to say that there was no need to worry. Plenty of good-looking bad-smelling food was available in local restaurant, but because we were not allowed to eat most of it (thank you doctor) I ate just rice, melon, rice, melon, rice…and bit of meat :o)

We did sightseeing next day through old Tashkent, I liked it really much. We also used local underground and I have to say that nice glass chandeliers and other decorations surprised me a lot. We took part in the World championship opening ceremony in the afternoon.

Tournament itself started on Thursday. When you hear „World championship“ you expect best referees, organization, equipment….unfortunately reality was different. Special techniques posts look like „ready to break after next jump“ and referees probably never heard about attacking tool and which of them to use it in special techniques (again check Monika’s article).

I have started in sparring -58 kg and in team competition. We lost with Russian team in team patterns. I have to say that they practiced in way that made us nearly fall asleep. In team sparring Ukrainian team defeated us and we were not able to reach medal position even in special techniques. I lost with Croatian competitor in sparring, she then did really good and defeated also Korean competitor (what does not mean that I cannot defeat her next time). I am happy for such an experience, so I hope in improvements in next tournaments.

I enjoyed whole trip to Uzbekistan and I am thankful for opportunity to go there with national team. I thank to national team coaches for all trainings, to Ondra for his all-year care and trainings and to all of you who wished us luck.

There are 2009 photos related to World Championship in Uzbekistan!.

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CELÁ GALERIE

Autor článku: Ondřej Vrábel

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