Halle the town of Georg Friedrich Händel-19th SKDUN World Karate Championship, GERMANY, 8-9.10.2011

Buying beautiful things, eating in excellent restaurants, art, culture and enjoying life: in Halle with its largely preserved historical old town. Everybody who walks along the streets of the old town encounters traces of Halle’s great history.

St. Mary's Church is the youngest of the medieval churches in Halle. It is one of the most significant late Gothic buildings in central Germany. Its four towers form, together with the nearby Red Tower, a characteristic landmark of the city. It is by the Soława River, thanks to this the city received the nickname of ‘five towers’.
Halle is the hometown of composer G.F. Handel. His museum is here and a festival of his name takes place here.
Halle, also called Saale, has salt mines around the city. It is a city in Saxony with approximately 240,000 inhabitants.

We travelled by car from London to Halle. It took less than 10 hours, which is a fairly quick trip. We arrived at our destination one day before the competition began. It turned out to be a very busy day, filled with judges meetings and technical briefings of coaches as well as registrations at Brandburgehalle. All competitors taking part in the competition had until 21:00 to register. To the delight of many of my teammates that were making weight for the competition, we ended the evening eating in a Chinese restaurant. Fortunately, there were many dishes to choose from without restrictions (as we had already registered), so all my teammates ate. They ate lots! 

The next day, on Saturday, the SKDUN World Karate Championship began. We started the day as usual with an early breakfast in the hotel. Not every competitor wants to eat on the day of their competition. It is a mistake to eat nothing, as later on in the day the fighter needs a raise of energy, in order to put in their maximum effort and energy into their fights. We then took a brisk walk to the Brandburgehalle Sports Center. The SKDUN World Karate Championship took place on 10 tatamis with over 700 competitors from 27 countries.

Competitions in kumite started in the afternoon. It was a long and tiring day. Our humble five-person team won one gold and two bronze medals.

KUMITE INDIVIDUAL
Men, over 40 years old, +75 kg
1. JACEK LIPINSKI (POLAND)
2. NAMAZOV SADI (AZERBAIJAN)
3. THIERRY PAGNIER (SWITZERLAND)
3. SEVERCAN HAKAN (GERMANY)

Men, 18-20 years old, -75 kg
1. MINDAUGAS KINDERIS (LITHUANIA)
2. AINARS KULDA (LATVIA)
3. KAMIL HEJMANOWSKI (POLAND)
3. GHERASIMCIUC ALEXANDR (MOLDOVA)

Girls, 10-11 years old
1. VLAD SARA (ROMANIA)
2. PARAUTA ANDEEA (ROMANIA)
3. MATUK ANASTASIYA (BELARUS)
3. TAMARA LIPINSKA (POLAND)

Sunday was the last day of the SKDUN World Karate Championship. On Sunday none of my teammates competed, as it was a day reserved for team categories. On this day, we took part in the official opening of the competition, an artistic part (a folk dance show) and the official part (the march and presentation of all teams competing in the competition and judges, as well as an official speech from the President of SKDUN, Aurel Patru). After the ceremonies ended, we found some time to visit the old city and stayed a few hours' at the thermal pools (Maya Mare Swimming Pool Complex), which everyone was waiting and excited for. It was probably a kind of reward for our effort put into our preparation and starts in the SKDUN World Karate Championship. After a few hours of relaxation we travelled home by car.

I am very happy with my performance. I strongly believe that hard training brings results. I think that the whole SKC team did very well and competed to the best of their ability. They gave everything they could on the tatamis. This is another gold medal that I have won at such a large-scale competition. After each competition I try to draw conclusions and figure out how I can improve for next time. If I am satisfied with the way in which I win, I consider the competition successful.