EKC 2010 Hungary, Report
June 17th, 2010 by Deegs
With the absence of any ‘official’ reports I decided to offer up my own report.
Here is a short report on the 23rd European Kendo Championships.
Within a few weeks of the national teams return from the recent world championships in Brazil it was time to bogu up and get back on the trail for the next European Champinoships in Hungary in 6 months time in April 2010.
Training started with a new program of 1 hr running followed by 4 hours kihon practice. It was a tough approach participants were many at the beginning but steadily diminished as the training moved on, roughly every 3-4 weeks.
Inspired by the previous team building for Brazil, the Irish kendo squad climbed Galtee Mor as a team building exercise.
In March we had a tight unit ready to take on whatever was thrown at us. We had 5 men and 2 ladies, and 3 officials.
The travel to Hungary was uneventful, 3hour drive up from Cork followed by waiting at the airport followed by the flight followed by some confusion about a transfer with some of the Belgium delegation. Finally we hoped on the party bus and headed for the love shack… (which turned out to be the longest and toughest part of our journey).
The love hotel we stayed in was modest and quite comfortable. It housed the Irish, Maltese and the South Africians. Seemed like the Irish made use of the facilites a bit more than other countries, such as a beer fridge and a jacuzzi.
We ditched our gear at about midnight and went hunting for water and supplies for all and drugs for me. I had the nasty cold / flu and was avoiding medication due to the doping rules. We found some supplies but no drugs. Queue sleepless night of agony!!
The following day we started our training, it was ‘all’ uchikomi and this our daily diet for the week. Later we went wandering. My cold had turned from bad to worse and I ended up getting medicated with a strong antibiotic, ibuprofen, paracetamol and vitamin C. Despite that spirits were high and we were feeling invincible.
Friday came, game time. Most of the delegation were up for action. I had only slept for 3 hours, whatever drugs I took did not sit well with me and I was getting severe muscle cramps every 40minutes. And when I say severe just multiply what you thought I meant by 20! Food, even drink, was not an option. Stopping the antibiotics mid way through was not an option either otherwise the infection would come back stronger and immune to any new antibiotics.
We hit training and all the team pulled whatever they had out of the bag and we looked sharp! Really sharp!!
Showtime. We stood up to Slovakia and started picking points off them from the outset, it was all but a washout for us. Where did the Irish kendo team come from? People were beginning to notice us. Next up came Slovenia. Again we went out strong, and again we destroyed our opponents.
That was that, history was made, for the first time Ireland had gotten out of its pools. Not only that but we had made it to the final 16 in Europe!!
It was not all smiles, however, in our next round we were to face France, we new it would be either France or Belgium and this is how it played out. The main powerhouse of European kendo, and ultimate winners vs a raw and hungry Irish team.
My stomach cramps were getting worse, they were literally doubling me over in agony. I suggested that perhaps I would not be able to fight against France but luckily as we were waiting to fight France I got a fit of stomach pain and when it passed I reckoned I was good for another 30 minutes at least and therefore I decided to put as big a dent in the french war machine as I could (the odds of beating them were so slim they were almost not worth considering).
The Irish team all fought admirably, and it was Martin and Brendan’s courageous performance (and lack of ippon despite some of their best kendo) that put my mind into resolve.
I stepped out against Diebold, a seasoned French kendoka, and previous European champion. From the outset his presence was intense and he did not give me a second to think. In hindsight I am glad he did, if I had had time to think I would have messed up, but I think as he forced my hand at every action my two points were pure thoughtless reaction. Two kote – I never score kote!
Hyped up John and Noel went out but the French were not letting any more wins or points through their net.
After their brush with Ireland, Diebold was summarily removed from the French team for the remainder of the Championship.
I think Peter would have been extremely happy with that result :)
After the match I needed more drugs, this time to settle my stomach and the effect of the original prescription. I was not good, and all signs were that I was worsening! After a light meal! we had an early night in preparation for the individuals the next day. I could not even have beer to celebrate :(
Morning started slow and there was a noticeable change in mood at early morning keiko… the spirit had diminished a little. Ladies were up first. Both ladies did great, Clare managed to score the very first Irish ladies ippon, making Irish kendo history a second time this weekend. Kathryn fought valiantly and I have the video to prove she scored several points but unfortunately the shimpan did not award them on the day.
The men came up next and there was immediate confusion with 4 out of 5 of the competitors going straight to the shiaijo, and we had only 2 officials! Jason took two competitors, Szilard took one and Vince stepped in to help me. The Irish did great for the individuals but could not repeat the previous days performance. Martin had an amazing fight against a movie star and beat a jodan kendoka and the Germans had to resort to kneecapping Brendan to stop his progress. Ireland individuals were halted in the pools, which goes to show the team was stronger than the indivuals.
Soon after we went back, I passed out and the guys hit the sayonara. All let their hair down and it was well deserved. The next 3 days Szilard took us on an amazing tour of Hungary, which took in great sights, vineyards, cave candlelit meals, high speed rallying through the mountains, swimming through mountain caves, massages and spa’s and general good company and granny whip crackers ;) It was a great trip and all down to Szilards generosity and goodwill, thanks!
All too soon it was time to go home and we left.
But we left with a few scalps; we cracked the pools, hit the final 16 in Europe and scored first ippon for an Irish lady. 23 ippon in total.
The future…
In Poland, we are gonna go further… how far is undecided… that will depend on who turns up to team training and the support we can give to each other over the next year.
Panel members – train hard 7 days a week!
Everyone else – Feel free to come and support ‘your’ national team, help us push the panel and drive them to the success we all deserve!
Now is the time to train harder than ever before.
Our future success, is not determined on the day itself in the shiajo, but at team and club training in the months before.
The EKC taikai is only the icing on the cake for those who have already done all the hard work and given their best.
See you at Abbeyleix Dojo ;)
Tags: national ireland irish kendo EKC 2010 Hungary Debreceen