RICK SCHOLES and TRENT HAYDEN represent ILSHIM in Sweden.

Every year around the end of march, the town of Skovde in Sweden plays host to one of the most popular and important ITF Taekwon-Do tournaments in Europe. The Viking Cup International attracts many of the biggest stars from around the world, and they use this tournament as a warm up for the European Championships in the following month. One of the most attractive aspects of the Viking Cup is the use of a “pool system” for the sparring draw, rather than the more conventional “pyramid” knockout draw. The pool system means that each division of competitors are divided into “pools” of up to five people who fight all of the other individuals in their pool, with the highest two point scoring competitors progressing into the next round. This unique system means that everyone is guaranteed to get multiple fights regardless of the results. Of course this is a huge attraction for everyone, particularly if contemplating a significant outlay in both cost and time to travel to an event for potentially only one match. As a result this tournament is supported by countries, teams, and individuals from all over the world.

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This year, Rick Scholes and Trent Hayden from ILSHIM Australia, made the long journey to Sweden to test their skills. They planned on arriving the week before the competition to get over the inevitable jetlag and do a little site-seeing. Our Swedish hosts did an exceptional job of making Rick and Trent feel welcome and they enjoyed the trip very much. They made many new friends along the way, and hope to return to Sweden in the future. As far as results went, both of the boys went to Sweden to gain valuable experience in multiple fights against international opponents and to that end both of them applied their knowledge as best they could and came home with a far greater depth of knowledge than they could have hoped for. Along the way Rick was eliminated in the pool stages after a number of very close matches, and Trent was fortunate enough to progress all the way through to the medal rounds and achieved a Bronze Medal (Senior Male Sparring TOP LEVEL -80kg). Both Rick and Trent are very excited about everything that they have learned and are looking forward to sharing this knowledge with other Taekwon-Do enthusiasts in Australia.