21.5.2023 / Sonkal Open 2023 ( info pack )

Taekwondo competition from four countries

This year's first competition organized by Sonkal visited again the Sports Centre in Prague Řepy to see over 300 competitors from 24 schools and 4 countries competing on six wrestling grounds. Participants from Slovakia, Croatia, Ireland and of course the Czech Republic found their way to the sports hall.

Registration with weigh-in started at 8am on the day of the competition, 20 May, and shortly after 9am a quick meeting of the judges began, followed by a meeting of the coaches. Unfortunately from the organisers' point of view we have to mention a few technical problems we had to deal with. Firstly the discovery that one of the wifi access points was physically damaged. This was followed by the further unfortunate news that someone had tried to reconfigure the whole system, unfortunately very cleverly. Friday's preparation was thus prolonged by two hours. In order not to get out of practice, before the start of the competition the second printer decided to strike and the wifi started to live its own life again. We can paraphrase the title of Oscar Wilde's work - How Important It Is to Have Jacob Geyer, who managed to solve everything very quickly and around 10.30 the competition could start in full swing.

The entrance ceremony and the first categories were supervised by Grand Master Hwang Ho-yong. The youth took to the patterns with due vigour and the desire to win a medal from Sonkal Open was recharging! With the same zeal, the young male and female fighters took on the sparring battle.

Gradually, we could move to the older and more experienced competitors, i.e. the junior/senior juniors and juniors, followed by the seniors and seniors. On a positive note, a number of our representatives who were fighting for European metals a month ago found their way onto the competition surface. Thanks to them, the matches had a lot of momentum and the less experienced ones gained very valuable experience, which is never enough.

At the end of the afternoon, the seniors took to the tatami to round off the Sonkal Open with their performances.

As soon as possible, trophies were presented to the most successful individuals. They received, in addition to the cup, a voucher for shopping at Hayashi and Ataxon hand protectors directly from the master Rostislav Kanka. The best individuals were:
- Julie Berlová, GBHS - younger youth female
- Petr Jakl, Brno - younger youth male
- Linda Trčková, Brno - older youth female
- Lukáš Macháň, Brno - older youth male
- Eliška Trčková, Brno - younger junior female
- Vojta Filípek, Třeboň - younger junior male
- Tereza Simandlová, Sonkal - older junior female
- Tadeáš Dobrovolný, Tong-Il – older junior male
- Šárka Třísková, Sonkal – adult male
- Jan Dvořáček, Sonkal – adult female

Sonkal dominated the ranking of schools with 14 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze medals. Second place belonged to Brno with a score of 12-9-1 and third place went to GBHS with 10-15-13.

Anyone who would like to watch their matches has the opportunity to watch on our YouTube channel.

In the coming days we will offer a short montage of interesting moments and also a general report. Both produced by Alexander Mach.

A portion of thanks goes to our partners:
- Prague City Hall for financial support
- Czech Taekwon-Do Federation ITF for financial and material support
- Ataxon for the protectors for the most successful individuals
- Hayashi for gift vouchers for the most successful individuals

Finally, let me thank all the competitors, coaches and judges, but most importantly, all the Sonkal members who have lent a hand in making the Sonkal Open 2023 a success. It has been a pleasure, and I look forward to seeing you on December 2 for the second competition we are hosting this year - the Ataxon Open - Devil's Cup.

Full results - HERE.