Sarajevo, the multi-etnic and beautiful capital of Bosnia, hosted last week end the first World Cup ever in Low-kick and K1 Rules of WAKO. Not so many the competitors who took part in the event , just 115, but of very good technical elevl since many of them are members of their national trams training for the next World Championships which will be held in Austria in October.
I was together with Mrs. Hebibovic (promoter of the event) and Senad (president of the Federation) analizing the reasons for such a reductive participation. And it was easy to find out the reasons : we don’t know why, but we ended up to have 3 World Cups in pratically the space of a month. Sarajevo was placed on 9-10 May, then we have Szeged /Hungary) on 23-24 May and, just to finish, Rimini (Italy) in the first week-end of June.
Logically peole have to make a choice. Nobody can take place in the 3 different events in such a shoret time. It’s a matter of health of the fighters, but also a matter of financial possibilities:nobody can afford it (I mean, national Federations or individual clubs). Both Hungary and Italy have alrfeady a good and solid tradition in World Cups, and that’s probably also why most of our competitors did not change their choices. Since Mr. Enver Hebibovic (who is also the trainer of famous Bosnian world champion Salzko Szildzic who willd efend his Wako-Pro crown against Ivan Strugar in Podgorica on 26th May) wants to promote the same event next yar, we have decided to place it in the fiurst week of March 2010, so to separate them from the other 2 World ups we already have in our calendar. A better marketing, a better advertisding of the event, will be able to make the difference compared to this year. That’s the hope, at least.
As I said before, the presence of many members of national teams from Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia,Italy and Bosnia mainly, guaranteed the event a good technical level. The Olympic sport-hall which hosted the event was great and I truly believe that Sarajevo would deserve a much bigger event in the future. Veterans in judging and running tournaments like Romeo Desa (Croatia) and Srdjan Bugarcic (Serbia), togetehr with the Halilovic (father and son) contributed to have a smooth tournament which ended in a sort of Gala which was put in the air “live” from National TV of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
All in all, a positive experience which everybody enjoied.
In the picture: the three leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina Kickboxing Federation: from left, Hebibovic, Senad and Halilovic in the Olympoic sport-hall in Sarajevo.
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