2022 European Taekwondo Championships in Porec, Croatia

The 2022 EITF Taekwondo European Championships took place in Porec, Croatia. The ITF England squad had a good contingent of competitors selected to compete in a competition that was affected by the conflict in Ukraine. There would be no Russia or Belarussian competitors, and only a small contingent of Ukrainian competitors. I was pleased to be selected as part of the veterans team, especially as it had been such a long gap since the last international competition.

Pre Competition Training

For the first two days after we arrived in Porec we trained in preparation for the start of the competition. The weather was good so we trained outside, and got a little sunburnt.

Individual Patterns

On the first day of the competition I was involved in the 4th Dan Male Veterans (Gold Division) Patterns. This had me up against my England team mate, Gary Nelson, in the final. This wasn’t Gary’s first final, he had won gold in Talinn in 2018, and so had experience of being on the mats in this situation. My coach, Master Steve Millis, told me to keep calm and relax which didn’t work that well, I moved through my choice pattern, Ul Ji, at a much faster pace than normal, but no major mistakes.

The designated pattern came up as Chon Ji. The random nature of the designated patterns never ceases to surprise me, in preparation we practice every pattern we should know, always expecting the most difficult, but sometimes the very first pattern in Taekwondo, Chon Ji, comes up.

I felt confident that I could do this with power and rhythm.

I performed it well, or at least well enough to win the match.

My first international gold medal, and so my first European title. I was so chuffed I couldn’t put it into words.

Team Patterns

Team patterns came next on day 2. We had practiced a lot during the squad training sessions and continued that in the first two days in Croatia as best we could with the various ailments we were all carrying. There was only a small contingent of Veterans teams entered and we were drawn against the Czech team. We would need to beat the Czechs to get into the final against the Greek team.

We performed our choice pattern, Sam Il, the best we had done throughout, but the Czech’s version of Gae Baek was excellent. We lost to the Czech team who then went on to beat the Greek team in the final.

Over the next two days the veterans had a break from competition as the focus of the mat time was on the junior and senior sparring categories. Many of the England competitors had a good showing, with a number coming away with well deserved medals.

Individual Sparring

The final day of competition brought all the veterans onto the mats at various points during the day. This culminated in a flurry of medals for the England veterans in the individual sparring and team team sparring, even though we failed to qualify for the Team Power.

I had the -80kg Veteran Male (Gold Category) Sparring where I met Thomas Kalender of Finland in the final. This was my second final of the competition and an excellent opportunity to come away with another European title.

Thomas was cagey and moved well around the ring but I was able to utilise my height advantage well to pick up points at a distance.

Thomas was persistent in trying to get inside to score points with his hands which led to me receiving a yellow card for excessive contact when he moved forward onto a punch I was expecting to land at distance.

This brought the scores closer than I would have wanted at this late point in the match. I had to focus on scoring clean and obvious points to the body and head to maintain my lead and come away with a win.

My favourite part about competing in martial arts is the camaraderie between competitors who have met on the mat.

I met up with Thomas after the match to get the obligatory photograph together and have a chat.

Team Sparring

My competition finished off with a disappointing performance in the Team sparring against the Greek team. Paul Harwood had won the first round against his opponent in a comfortable match that demonstrated his extensive experience on the mat. Steve Fedor then had a close match that he ultimately lost. This meant that everything rode on the next pairing, whoever won would win the match. The coach, Danielle Williams, had to choose between me and Simon Byatt. This was Simon’s first international, he had beaten the Greek competitor who had been chosen to go up next during his individual sparring. Danielle opted for me as I had more experience at this level. The match was close but, I made significant contact but I was unable to get the clear and obvious points that the corner referees could score consistently, eventually losing by a couple of points. This meant that we had a Bronze in the Team Sparring to go with the Bronze in the Team Patterns.

The competition was a successful one for the veterans as individual competitors even though it was less successful in the team events. The England Veterans finished third overall in the veterans categories.