News 2008

1st place in patterns in Viking Cup
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Patterns competition nerve-wrecking
Viking Cup took again place in Vammala's friendship city Skövde. This time already 9th time. During the years Viking Cup has became maybe the toughest competition in Europe, where the top competitors of our continent gather to get the final touch on their performances before the important championships. Good arrangements and high level of competition have attracted competitors from other continents too. This year the longest way took Llauger Castillo of Puerto Rico and Aziz Abedellah from Canada. This was my fifth time in a row in Viking Cup and I've returned every time home with a golden medal and a viking helmet in my bag. Most victories have come in patterns, though last year I won my sparring division and was left empty handed in patterns.
This year I won the 3rd degree patterns and took a win over e.g. the World Championships bronze medalist and World Cup winner Arne Witzoe from Norway. In the final I met another Norwegian Truls Hotvedt. Performing patterns in a competition sure made me nervous again, though one could think that with this amount of experience the shaking before entering the ring wouldn't be that bad anymore. The fact that it was my first international competition in 3rd degrees naturally added the pressure some, since I wanted to do well in front of the umpires and fellow competitors. It was great to get to meet WC medalist Arne in the ring and of course to manage to win him. Of course it's good to remember that in Viking Cup only designated pattern is done, whereas in Championships competitors perform also an optional pattern. This time the designated was Do San, which has mostly hand techniques. A fact that without a doubt worked for my favour. Anyway, thinking about the European Championships all looks good when it comes to patterns.

Finns strong in patterns
Patterns day has traditionally been succesful for Finns and so it was this year too. The national team male members made their way to the podium in every category. Michael Holler took gold in 4th-6th degree division and this way he also conquered the place in that category in the national team. Aleksi Sarkkinen in the 1st degree and the newcomer in the team, Jouni Heikkinen, in 2nd degree division both reached bronze medals. Jouni took valuable wins on his way, winning over e.g. Norwegians Kim Slydahl and Aleksander Aronsen. In semi-final Jouni lost by one flag to Norway's Gunnar Rugsveen. The victory of the division went to the reigning European champ Steven Arroyo from England.

Also the ladies performed sharp in patterns. Our only junior Tiia Kiviranta won the juniors' 1st degree division and Hanna-Maria Seppälä took bronze in seniors 1st degrees. In 2nd degrees Anja Kärki won a couple of rounds but was left outside podium. World Champion Pauliina Heiskanen had to settle for bronze medal this time, as she lost to Ronja Ek of Sweden in the semi-final. Losing was only due to a big mistake Pauliina made, beginning with a wrong pattern. However, Pauke did well starting calmly again from the beginning and hammered the pattern through with such intensity that for sure no question marks was left on the question who's the strongest girl in this division. At least in my papers for European Championships there's only one favorite, and that's not the reigning champion Ilona Dziala, who won in Viking Cup.

Sparring in routine level isn't enough
I didn't reach the level I hoped for in sparring. The middle weight division was once again the biggest, so the 30 competitors were divided into three groups and each group further into two pools, where all competitors faced each other. I won all my three fights in the beginning pool and also the German who came second in my group's other pool. This way I continued to next phase, where two best from each three groups went on to form two more pools. Once again all three fighters in the pool faced each other and the two best went on to semi-finals. Unfortunately I lost my both fights. First to Piotr Wasilewski of Poland, who won the competition and then to Stian Bringslid of Norway who came second. I'm not a bit satisfied with my performance, for I didn't get a proper feeling and spirit into it at any point and stayed dieseling in routine level, which simply isn't enough. All is possible, though, but to get a good result in the Euros I must be able to squeeze out the best in me. Most of all I have some work to do on the mental side before the main event of the season.

Pauliina ja Tiia national team's only medalists in sparring
Tampere Taekwon-Do club's Pauliina Heiskanen and Tiia Kiviranta carried on with their convincing performances also in sparring. Tiia fought bronze in junior -50 kg division and Pauliina was the only Finn to make it to Sunday evening's final happening. In the event she faced World Champion Katya Solovey of Ukraine in the -52 kg final. As expected Katya showed in her calm, even scaring way that she rules the ring as she'd own it. But Pauliina still fought very mature staying very well in the gameplan made with the national team coaches. On her way to the final Pauliina beat as well the 2005 World Champ Marszanna Pawlik from Poland as 07 WC bronze medalist Heli Karjalainen after an extra round.

Good spirit inside and outside the team
This year a great, new feature was added to the competition compared to the previous years, namely official competition party in a local night club. This gave a wonderful opportunity to socialise with friends around the globe, where as the previous years we've been forced to kill time in Skövde, then drive to Stockholm and wait overnight for the ferry to leave. And fun we had, as well with the team as with the foreigners. A very good spirit has grown inside the national team and it feels like the group enjoys training together and often so numbing competiton trips are easy, eaven fun, with all the bad humour inside the group.

Check out a video from a national team camp at Virrat 20tg-22nd March 08
Videos from Viking Cup available on Truls Hotvedt's quality site at www.kick-t.com
Viking Cup's results and photos at competition website www.viking-cup.se
Michael Holler's photos in Flickr at www.flickr.com/rolleh
Lasse Kuusisto's photos: lakritsimies.biz