2024 EITF European Championships, Koper Slovenia

Congratulations to Nuneaton competitor George Wright for representing ITF England at the 2024 EITF European Championships.

Between the 15th and 21st May, 745 competitors from 33 countries gathered in  Koper Capodistria, Slovenia to compete against Europe’s best. Nuneaton Taekwon-Do’s George Wright and ITF England Coach Danielle Williams joined the England National Squad for 5 days of intense competition at the Arena Bonifika.

Arriving on the Sunday morning, the 37 strong team from England settled in at the Koper resort ahead of the competition.  Now an experienced competitor at his 3rd European Championship, George made weight easily at registration before joining the rest of the team with 2 days of training ahead of the tournament.

George kicked off his tournament in the Men’s I Dan Patterns event on the Wednesday. In Patterns, competitors perform pre-set sequences of punches, kicks and strikes and are judged on their technical accuracy, balance and power. Always a tough category, George faced 18 other competitors on his path to gold and in the first round George came up against Mykyta Skorokhodov of Ukraine. Unfortunately it was not to be as George lost by a split decision and Skorokhodov eventually went on to win the Bronze. 

George then stepped out onto the mats as part of a 5 man England Men’s Team for Team Patterns. A strong performance from England saw them into the semi-finals where they faced Greece. Greece were much improved from last year and England had to settle for Bronze whilst Greece progressed to the final where they beat Ukraine to take the Gold. 

On the 2nd day of the Championships George took to the mat in the Men’s -71kg Sparring event. In Sparring, competitors first must win the Group stages, a round robin event against 3 other competitors, to progress into the elimination rounds. In the group stages George drew Latvia, Slovenia and Moldova and began his campaign against Andrejs Reimanis of Latvia. Looking controlled and in charge of the match from the start, George finished several points clear with 2-1 corner judges in his favour. 

George’s second match was against Domen Zabukovnik from home nation Slovenia. Although starting the match strong and finishing the first round ahead, Zabukovnik landed a jump back kick to the head in the 2nd round to score 4 points leaving George to try to make up the points difference. George wasn’t able to make up the difference in time meaning a win for the Slovenian.

To progress out of the Group stages, George needed to beat his final opponent, Adal Tentiuc of Moldova. The Moldovan was a tough fighter and landed an early 360 turning kick in the first round meaning George had to work hard to get points back on the board. George slowly chipped away at his opponent but a yellow card meant he finished the match one point down ending his event.

On the final day, England faced Bulgaria in the Men’s Team Sparring. Team Sparring is an open-weight best of 5 match and England had their work cut out for them against the 2023 Champions. First onto the mat was England team captain Sean McIntyre who faced the Bulgarian -92kg fighter Deni Velev. Sean fought well but the Bulgarian won the match leaving England 0-1 down. Bulgaria then sent up Lyubomir Drakaliyski and England responded with their -71kg fighter Matthew Stockton. Matthew was unable to beat the Bulgarian meaning it was all or nothing for George Wright as the third fighter. George faced the -64kg Bronze medallist Anton Ogorelkov and despite scoring early, the Bulgarian responded well leaving George 2 points down and securing the win for Bulgaria. Bulgaria eventually went on to win the Gold having beaten Greece in the final.

A tough championships for England who finished with 9 Golds, 2 Silvers and 18 Bronzes and 5th on the Overall medal table behind heavyweights Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Czechia. Now work begins for George and the rest of the ITF England team ahead of the 2025 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.