Slovenia, 26.-27. mai 2007:
Følgende lag var tatt ut til EM 2007: Trond Friise (fukogo/ kata/ lagkumite), Mostafa Elmrani (individuell kumite / lagkumite), Pål Nymoen (lagkumite), Lise Tveter (kata). Sensei Martin Boag var med som coach.
Lise brakk en tå rett før EM og kunne dessverre ikke delta. Trond var også uheldig å skade seg før mesterskapet men gjennomførte allikevel med fin stil. Laget gjorde en meget bra innsats selv om det ikke ble noen medaljer denne gangen. Trond kom til kvartfinalen i fukogo og det samme gjorde kumitelaget.
Coaches Report:
National
squad training and preparations for the 2007 European Championship in Slovenia
began in October 2006.
Sensei Lim
and Sensei Boag encouraged brown and black belts to take part in the first two
sessions before Christmas with the goal of improving overall level. These
sessions were divided into kata and kumite with Sensei Lim teaching kata and
Sensei Boag teaching kumite simultaneously. The advantage of this way of
teaching is that it allows participants to focus on one element (kata or
kumite) per session and then can train the other element at the next
sessions.
The
sessions after Christmas were open to black belts and it became clear to the
coaches who were the likely candidates for the team to go to Slovenia. These
sessions focussed mostly on kumite with particular attention on the crucial areas of timing and distance. We
used body armour in these classes which allowed the participants to make
contact and get used to the “feel” of
landing the techniques at the right distance which is crucial for focus
and stability.
The team
which was chosen to go to Solvenia for the European Championships was Trond
Friise (fukugo, kata and team kumite), Mustafa Elmrani (individual and team
kumite), Pål Nymoen (team kumite) and Lise Tveter (kata). These four athletes
had shown the best competition spirit and ability of all the participants and
worked hard on the sessions in which they had participated.
The team
was ready to go Slovenia to take part in the events as listed above and then a
stroke of bad luck meant that Lise had to pull out of the team due to the fact
that she broke a toe two weeks before departure date. This was indeed
unfortunate but seeing as we had already bought and paid for the air tickets we
thought that it would be good for Lise to come along anyway and get some
experience of this level of competition.
To the
championships then!
Well, no
medals this year but absolutely nothing to be ashamed about. The men performed
very well in all their events. First up in individual kata was Trond Friise.
Trond who has medals from previous European and World championships has not
competed for his country for ten years but has lost none of his competition
spirit and focus. Unfortunately, however, suffering from a badly pulled hamstring
muscle sustained in training one week before the competition, he was not able
to perform as good a kata as he would have liked and missed getting into the
second round.
However,
with determination and a bit more stretching Trond was up and taking part in
his next event Fukugo. He performed a good solid Kitei kata and got the
decision by the judges against the Austrian competitor. In the second round,
kumite, he fought well against a difficult opponent but failed to get through
to the 3rd round.
Mustafa
Elmrani was next up for individual kumite and fought a good, hard and exciting
fight against the eventual winner of the individual kumite competition from
Israel. Both fighters exchanged punches with the Israeli scoring with a
gyaku-tsuki.
The team kumite
was the highlight for the Norwegian team. No doubt! All three athletes fought
well and showed a good deal of maturity.
The first
round was against Austria. Despite still suffering from a damaged hamstring
muscle, Trond fought a strategically intelligent fight against his opponent. He
was unlucky not to score from an ashi-barai, kisami tsuki combination. The
fight ended a draw. Mustafa was second man and forced his opponent into a Tento
foul by using a strong leg sweep. Tento is when a competitor touches the mat
with any part of his body except his feel or hands. This was to prove important
for the team. In the next match with Pål taking part in his first international
event, despite several good attacks Pål did not manage to score on his
opponent. However, importantly, the opponent failed to score on Pål!
So thanks to a Tento foul the Norwegian team
went through to the next round against Russia.
Russia are
an experienced country in these championships and have won the team event in
the past. However, they failed to intimidate
the Norwegian team. All three Norwegian men fought hard and showed good spirit.
The star of the Russian team, who had spent most of the day both in the team
and in the individuals sweeping and scoring on his opponents, saw no reason to
change his strategy against Pål in the last fight of the match.
The Russian
used the ashi barai several times but was unable to cause Pål to lose balance.
On the contrary Pål pressed forward after the Russians attempts and was unlucky
not to score on two occasions with good kisami tsuki – gyaku tsuki
combinations. It was just after one of Pål’s attacks that the Russian who found
himself pressed out on the edge of the mat produced a very nice ushiro geri
which caught Pål in the stomach. So, that was it then, one scoring technique in
the match.
Overall,
the coaches were very satisfied with the performance and particularly the
attitude within the team. There was good focus and everyone contributed to a
good team spirit. There is certainly a good base to build on for next year.
Martin Boag
National
Coach
