The run up to the 2018 European Taekwondo Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, was a reminder that you have to fight for your place in the team. My friend, Shaun Parkin, was selected over me to be part of the Veterans Team for the team competitions. I did not perform well enough in the final selection day when sparring against Shaun. I was gutted to say the least, but pleased that I was still selected as part of the England squad to compete in the individual patterns and sparring.
Jacob Thorley, also a students at Universal TKD in Ludlow, was also selected for the Junior squad, both as an individual and in the team competitions.
England team mates together. Reuben Thorley (Bronze in 3rd Dan Patterns) and Shaun Parkin on the final day of the 2018 European Taekwondo Championships. Shaun won Gold in both Team Patterns and Team Sparring.
The squad was not quite as large as in the 2017 European Championships squad but it was still a fair number of Taekwondo competitors of all age groups, including Juniors, Adults and Veterans.
The ITF England Squad for the 2018 European Taekwondo Championships outside the competition venue in Tallinn, Estonia
There were no available training facilities other than the competition venue, so we made use any available spaces around Tallinn. The most effective spaces were often the multi-storey car parks that provided a flat surface to practice patterns without being too concerned about losing our footing.
Training takes place wherever you can find the space. The England Squad training in an empty car park in Tallinn
The squad would meet at the end of each day to run through successes and areas for improvement. Squad meeting led by Mr Steve Millis 6th Dan
Individual Patterns
Jacob Thorley (England) wins against Danylo Krysevych (Ukraine) with a split decision
Jacob went out just before the medals to Giorgos Sokratous, a very capable competitor from Cyprus.
This was a significant improvement on the previous international competition and provided a great confidence boost.
I also made good progress in the Veterans 3rd Dan Patterns, but not quite as good as 2017 in Liverpool. This time I came up against a seasoned Russian competitor, Igor Badalian, in the Semi-Finals. I went out on a 3-2 split decision when we probably should had have played the video card. Igor had made a mistake that had not been spotted by a three of the judges and if we had played the video card it is likely the decision would have gone my way.
It was a learning moment for many of the coaches watching. Video replay had not been available previously and nobody really new what to do. After this match nobody hesitated again.
Reuben Thorley (England) v Igor Badalian (Russia) Veterans 3rd Dan Semi Final
Lahsen Amassoul (England) and Reuben Thorley (England) both achieved Bronze in Veterans 3rd Dan Patterns
Team Patterns
Junior Team Patterns had the England Male Junior team up against Ukraine in the first round. This is a very hard draw, as they all are, but some are harder than others. The boys performed well, going out on a split decision of 4 judges to 1.
Individual Sparring
This was the first international competition to introduce group stages for the sparring instead of straight forward elimination. The rules for progression were not very clear beyond having to win your group outright to progress. This put a lot of pressure on the first match in each group.
I had been drawn in a group against Scotland (Richard Glennie) and Russia (Igor Badalian).
I had a poor fight against Richard. I did not deal well with the new mats being so slick and I could hardly stay on my feet. Richard dealt with this better and was able to counter each attack more effectively than I could.
This meant I was fighting for pride against Igor and the outside chance that a high points win would put me at the top of the group if Richard lost against Igor. It also gave me the opportunity to get a win against Igor who had beaten me in the Veterans 3rd Dan Patterns.
We had seen the Slovenian competitors standing on wet towels before going on the mats to fight. We all realised that this was going to be the only way to stop us from slipping and sliding on the new mats.
This time I kept my footing better and won relatively comfortably against Igor, but so did Richard. This meant I went out in the group stages, but it was still an improvement on the 2017 European Championships.
-80kg Veterans Sparring Reuben Thorley (England) in red v Igor Badalian (Russia) in blue
Jacob was drawn in a group against Ukraine (Artur Borysov), Wales (Luca Bishop) and Bulgaria (Hristofor Nikolov).
These would all be hard fights against seasoned competitors. Jacob performed well against Artur from Ukraine but was a little tentative and was out pointed by his greater reach and experience.
Jacob is still learning how to fight at this level and has no standard style or approach. This meant that a number of coaches and spectators watching his fights were often interested by his "style" as they couldn't predict what he was going to do.
In the second and third matches Jacob opened up and was more fluid in his approach. His performance against Luca from Wales was strong throughout. He looked like he was enjoying himself.
Jacob Thorley (Eng) in red completing a jumping 360 kick against Hristofor Nikolov (Bul) in blue
The final match against Hristofor was also good for Jacob, but he was outpointed by Hristofor on 3 or the 4 judges.
Jacob Thorley (Eng) in red lands a turning kick on Luca Bishop (Wales) in blue. Francis Millar (England Coach) commented that "He's good when he follows instructions"
Team Sparring
Junior Male Team sparring brought England up against Ukraine again. If the patterns draw was hard against Ukraine, the sparring is even more so. Their sparring team is not made up of the members of the squad competing in the individual events like the England team, they are there specifically for the team sparring.
Paul Harwood (England Coach and Veterans Team Captain) commented how pleased he was with Jacob's attitude, "He wanted to get on the mat and he didn't care how big the other guy was".
At one point in Jacob's match up he landed a right cross so hard on the Ukranian competitor that he knocked him clear off his feet. After this the Ukranian played a much cagier game and stayed out of reach whilst maintaining a slight point advantage.
The competition was a very successful one for the whole England Veterans Team. So much so that the England Veterans Team were the overall Veterans Champions for the competition. We were all very proud of ourselves.
ITF England Veterans Squad - Overall Veterans Champions at the 2018 EITF European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia