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5th
European Tournament（2007.12.08） |
Dec. 8, 2007: The Fifth European
Tournament was held at Lvov, Ukraine and hosted by
the European Kyokushin Organization (President Klaus
Rex), the Ukraine Branch Chief Nikolay Zhylin and
all the Ukraine Branches.
In addition, sponsors were the Family, Youth and Sports
Ministry of Ukraine and the Family, Youth and Sports
Administrative Department of Lvov. Participants were
not only from Europe, but also from South Africa,
Iran, Russia, and Haiti. For the first time, Serbia,
Belorussia, Armenia, Azerbaidjan and Romania attended,
and it was a perfect opportunity for them to meet
and establish relationships.
Lvov is the ancient capital city and is located near
the West Ukraine border. Therefore, I saw plenty of
teams travelling to the tournament using the train
or cars. |
Preliminary rounds started
around 10:00am using two floors, and it was a very
exciting beginning.
A ceremony was held a little after 2:00pm with a marching
band and an exhibition that was followed by an acrobatic
exhibition, kobudo, tapdancing and a musical by children,
etc... In addition to that, there was a youth demonstration,
and a demonstration by the Hungarian team (lead by
Branch Chief Jozsef Borza), which was backed up by
a laser beam and a big screen. The entire audience
was very impressed and excited about it. The events
of that ceremony reminded me of the concept of hard
practice. |
| Main rounds were started
with tameshiwari (board-breaking). I saw several Iranian
fighters who lost at the end by weight judgment. The
fighters in this tournament were of a very high caliber,
so many extended matches were conducted. The countries
that survived these tournaments were Russia, Ukraine,
Hungary, as well as South Africa. Nowadays, I have
visited these countries and feel strongly that many
of the young fighters have great potential. |
It was almost 11:30pm when
the commendation ceremony was over, and then fireworks
were held outside during temperatures of minus Celsius.
I saw the fireworks over the gymnasium and was told
they were the sign of the end of the tournament.
The tournament was very impressive - well-organized,
very entertaining, and sophisticated, with many corporate
sponsors.
Right after that, we went to a hotel and held a farewell
party that started around midnight. The party was
attended by 220 people and everyone received nice
gifts from the sponsors. Even though it was just a
party, we were given a full-course expensive meal.
If it had been held in Japan, we would not have been
able to celebrate this late into the night. |
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