Bronze for Christian from the men's U30 groups!

The EC competitions of business series were organized in Turkey on April 2-4. and right after one day in between, the first Beach EC competitions were contested at the same place. The level of the competitions was very tough, but so was the Finnish team. Three bronze medals came from the EC competitions, one of which was hung around Christian's neck after excellent performances in the group series together with Budokwa's Olli Siltanen and Frans Salme. Other bronzes were taken by the women's O30 group Niina Virtala (Manse), Johanna Nukari (EHT) and Triin Saviauk (Budokwai) and Niina Virtala (Manse) individually. The medal haul was completed by the men's group bronze from the beach games. Congratulations to the medalists!

Taekwondo athletes had a strong representation in the team, when in addition to Christian, Ville, Plum, Eero, Aino, Alex, Sofia, Bella, Vickan, Laura (beach) and Elina (beach) won medals. Everyone showed their claws on the competition mats, and if anything, the competition served as a good barometer for what's to come. It's amazing to see so many athletes from competition groups at such a hard level. Keep up the determined work!

Villen's Travel Report

"Ville beat the representative of Bulgaria in the first round of the European Championship and in the second round they faced Turkey. The Turk was too tough and Ville's final ranking was a shared 5th place. The Turk in question eventually achieved silver. In the pairs series with Budokwa's Triin Saviauk, especially the final performances were spot on and the ranking was 6. The previous 5 pairs were still somewhat ahead in points, so there is still a little way to go and work to be done to the top of Europe. In the Beach European Championships, Ville faced a Turkish (this time, however, a different Turkish) in the style of the European Championships, who eventually achieved silver. Ranking shared 9th place. In the pairs series, the change of pooms that came to light at the last moment mixed things up so much that the performance was not as expected and Ville and Triin lost to the Danish pair, leaving the medal a dream. Final ranking shared 5th place.

Elina competed only in the Beach EC competitions, in the Team Female U30 series, with Nea Säynäjoki from Keumgang in Tampere and Linda Räkköläinen from Hipko. The group was in good shape, but the Italian trio they faced in the first round still took the win. Women's group ranking shared 5th place.

Laura also only competed in the Beach EC competitions. Laura had bad luck on the trip when she injured her leg during training the night before the competition day. Plagued by injury, Laura narrowly lost to Spain in the first round.

Plum and Eero competed in the Under 17 boys group series with Joonas Järvenpää of Pori Taekwondo. This was also Eero's value competition debut. The performances were good, but still not enough for the further rounds. Plum also competed in the under-17 doubles series with Espoo Hwarang Team's Mia Knutsson. Even in the doubles series, the level was so high that there was no further place. Eero also competed in the Beach EC competitions in the individual series, beating Russia nicely in the first round. In the second round, there was a loss to Spain and the final ranking was shared 5th place.

The TU cadets all made a great value competition debut at the EC competitions. 11 of the 22 contestants in Aino's series made it to the semi-final round, and despite the hard bets, Aino came in 14th place, just outside the semi-finals. Alex started directly from the second round, with the number of competitors being 19. The qualifying was tight, with only 8 competitors making it to the finals. Alex's performances were not quite enough until the final round. Bella, Vickan and Sofia also did good performances without being disturbed by the competition organizer's initial glare. The young contestants still didn't quite manage to match their older ones, and the next place was still unattainable this time. The performances of all cadets were good and the setting was challenging, with many competitors in the cadet series being older and stronger. We can expect strong results from the future, as our competitors gain more experience!"

-Ville