The United States goes to the Dutch Open



Dutch Open March 9-10 Eindhoven, Netherlands	*The United States goes to the Dutch Open ...* ... A Report on the U.S. National Team By Kim Sol, Head of Team

Countries Participating: Albania Andorra Australia Austria Belarus Belgium Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary Iceland Iran Ireland Israel Italia Japan Latvia Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Tunisia Turkey USA	The United States Taekwondo Union, as part of its continuing efforts to expand the experience and development of US Taekwondo athletes, was able to send its US Team, as well as OTC members, to the 29th Annual Dutch Open this year, representing the first year of official US participation in this outstanding international event. Held March 9 and March 10, 2002, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, 33 countries participated this year.
	The US National Team consisted of: Kay Poe Mandy Meloon Angela Prescott Diana Lopez Lynda Laurin Simona Hradil Sanaz Shabazi Heidi Gilbert David Montalvo Tim Thackery Peter Lopez Mark Lopez Tony Graf Derek Romano Bill Palmieri Stewart Gill	The OTC Team consisted of: Elisha Voren Jaime Houston Elizabeth Mohammed Andrea Ferkile Cody Aquirre Jason McEuin Additional competitors from the United States, getting there on their own or with the support of their clubs and coaches, included: Jared Gullikson and Donovan Beswick of Poos Taekwondo, Dave Richardson of Boise, Idaho, Kristina Brooks, and Sean Nichols of Westside Taekwondo, NY. Also competing at the Dutch Open from Ramy Latchinian's WTM were Amanda Thome (2000 Junior National Team) and her sister, Elizabeth (Lizzie). Both were there with WTM's Master Ramy Latchinian and Kristina Brooks. Amanda competed in the women's fin weight division, losing in the quarter-finals to the Spain competitor, who ultimately won the gold. Lizzie competed in the junior feather weight division, losing her first match to a German competitor.
	Coaches: Han Won Lee Sammy Pejo Josh Coleman Trainer and Medical: Trish Bare-Grounds General Organizer: Betsy Liebsch USTU Officials: Soon Ho Kim, Secretary General USTU Jae Ro: Head of Team Kim Sol: Head of Team
	The Women (4 Gold 1 Bronze) Elisha Voren, (Palm Beach, Fla.), Gold - flyweight division Diana Lopez, (Sugarland, Tex.), Gold - featherweight division Sanaz Shabazi, (Sacramento, Calif.), Gold - middleweight division Heidi Gilbert, (Seattle, Wash.), Gold - heavyweight division Kay Poe, (Houston, Tex.), Bronze - finweight division Men (1 Gold 2 Bronze) Peter Lopez, (Houston, Tex.), Gold - bantamweight division Bill Palmieri (Cranbury, NJ.), Bronze - middleweight division Jared Gullekson (Tulsa, OK.), Bronze - bantamweight division

	*A Good Trip to the Dutch Open* The US National Team, minus those injured, and members of the Olympic Training Center team journeyed to the 2002 Dutch Open March 9 and 10. Spurred by cheap airfares, the trip proved to be memorable, outstanding experience for US competitors, and a pleasant visit to Holland. Most of the team traveled to the Netherlands from New York or Washington, DC. The USTU's indefatigable Trainer and Medical person, Trish Bare-Grounds and myself traveled to the Netherlands from Atlanta, Trish because it was close to Florida where she lives, and myself because Atlanta was as far as possible from where I actually live. Overnight flights to the Netherlands meant that the team members and officials all arrived at Amsterdam airport during the morning hours of Thursday March 7. Trish and I waited on one side of the terminal for nearly two hours, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, while the rest of the team waited nearly two hours on the other side of the terminal, waiting for Trish and I to arrive. The Amsterdam airport is like a huge shopping mall, all sorts of interesting little shops, and a Burger King where Trish and I drank coffee all morning waiting for the rest of the US team to come looking for us.
	The canals of Amsterdam are world famous. We flew over these on the way into the Amsterdam airport, and again when we left. However, this postcard was as close as we got to actually seeing them close up.
	As soon as we finally realized everyone was already at the airport, we headed toward the trains. The train terminal for both local and intercity trains is located within the airport terminal, so it was a very easy transition to the trains. Holland operates an extensive railway system, operating off of a 1500 volt direct current overhead trolley with modern trains and stations all throughout the country. We had to travel to the tournament city, Eindhoven which is south of Amsterdam, two hours by rail, located fairly close to the German border. So, we got to see quite a bit of the country from the train. The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, but we saw miles and miles of countryside, farms, canals, and forests. It was a pleasant and remarkable countryside. The Dutch appreciate and preserve much of the historical character of their country, and so we were able to see not only the pleasant countryside, but the windmills and canals so prominent in the perception of Dutch culture and history.
	Eindhoven is considered an industrial and commercial center, not really a tourist destination. In spite of that, it had a very characteristic Dutch downtown where the train station was located. The Dutch are notorious bicycle riders, and so the train station has "bicycle" parking lots where literally a sea of bicycles are parked every day by commuters. It was quite a spectacle. The Eindhoven Sports Center is a ways from the train station, and so we had find taxis or a shuttle to take all of us and our baggage to the Eindhoven Sportscentrum Hotel. The nice thing about this process was the nearly all Dutch speak fluent English. Coach Lee attempted to negotiate a cheap fare for us, which resulted for some reason in a suddenly insurmountable language barrier and a considerable delay in finding a ride in spite of the presence of 20 or so taxis.
	When we did find one, after we boarded he zipped us to the hotel in something like what had to be record time, explaining the meaning of the various red lights we were passing through and the one way traffic lanes we were going the wrong way on with an eloquent justification of the need to conserve energy -- which motivates all the Dutch apparently -- and the need to make good time. All in fluent English.
	At the hotel, we met a typically incomprehensible Dutch sign, using many, many letters combined randomly into unpronounceable words to get some point across. This one, I think, said that your car will sleep in the canal if it was towed, and this had something to do with your keys, open car doors, and your camera, and possibly different times of day or night in which something was or was not OK about your keys, the car door, and your camera. After a while these always made some kind of sense.
	The Eindhoven sports center is quite a sport complex, with a large multi-purpose indoor athletic facility surrounded by multiple playing fields for soccer and tennis courts. The Dutch hosts for the tournament had everything well organized and the event ran smoothly for its two days. All the tournament announcements were made in both Dutch and English, and when announcements were made for specific teams, these were often made in the specific language of the team. The presence of teams from 33 countries, and including many free agent competitors, made this quite an international event.
	The first day of competition started off with a bang, with Mandy Meloon's foot knocking out Kristine Storro of the National Team of Norway. It was big knockout as shown here in the photo. Mandy moved up the ladder to defeat Aimee Bungalembun from the Netherlands, losing finally, 7-5, to Dondu Guvenc of the Turkish National Team. In the same division (women's under 51 kg, flyweight), Olympic Training Center's Elisha Voren defeated two competitors before winning 7-7 overAinara Sanchez of Spain. Elisha vindicated Mandy's loss to Turkey by defeating Turkey 13-9 in the finals match. Gold medal! In the Women's 51-59 kg featherweight division, OTC's Jaimie Houston beat Patricia Rodrigues of the Swedish National Team before falling to Carine Zeimanovitch of France. On the other side of the bracket, Diana Lopez beat a German competitor, a Spanish competitor, a French competitor (2-0), and finally won the Gold medal with a 9-5 victory over a tough competitor from Spain. In the the Women's -67kg category, Simona Hradil had a tough first round loss to 2000 World Cup middleweight champion Alesia Charniauskaya from Belarus. In Women's heavyweight, over 72 kg, Heidi Gilbert had two easy wins before her 6-2 finals match with Filiz Nur Aydin of Turkey. In Men's under 58 kg, Tim Thackery beat Croatian National Team member Lovro Maltar before falling to Ivano Greco of Germany in a tough loss decided by deductions. In Men's -68kg, Mark Lopez lost in a very close first match to a Belgian competitor. In the same division, OTC's Cody Aguirre beat Karim Dighof of Belgium, defeated a Swiss player 9-10, then fell to Kirili Kuirelional of the Belarus National Team, 4-5. In Men's Heavyweight, Stewart Gill easily won his first three matches before falling to Pascal Gentil of France. During the second day of competition, Kay Poe overwhelmed her first opponent 13-2 before falling to 2001 World Champion Ana belen Asension of Spain in a heart-breaking 7-7 match. In Women's -63kg, Elizabeth Mohammed of OTC, Lynda Laurin and Andrea Ferkile all lost their first matches in frustrating fights. David Montalvo lost to Turkey in the Men's -54 kg division. In Men's -62kg. division, Peter Lopez defeated Israel, Sweden, Sweden and finally defeated Israel for a Gold medal. He narrowly missed having to fight fellow American Jared Gullickson who won his four fights before losing in the semi-final round. In Men's -72 kg. class, Tony Graf handily won his first fight against Switzerland, 8-3, then narrowly lost 8-7 to Belarus in a frustrating match that saw at least one clearly phantom point scored for Belarus. In Men's -84 kg., Jason McEuin defeated the Swedish National Team member before losing to Germany, 7-4. In the same division, Bill Palmieri won his first three fights before losing in the semi-finals. Sanaz Shabazi, Women's -72kg, fought into the finals, winning a Gold Medal for the United States. Other Americans competing at the Dutch Open included Kristina Brooks, Angela Prescott, Donovan Beswick beat Sweden then lost to Tunisia, Sean Nichols, Derek Romano, and Dave Richardson. All in all, a very good showing.
	The US National Team with Coaches Han Won Lee and Sammy Pejo.
	The US National Team, the OTC Team, Trainer Trish Bare-Grounds, Coaches Lee, Pejo and Josh Coleman, USTU Secretary General Soon Ho Kim, Heads of Team Jae Ro and Kim Sol. Unfortunately missing, or hidden, is Betsy Liebsch, General Essential Organizer.
	The tournament was over, it seemed like, in a flash. We walked back down the sidewalk that, in the Netherlands, doubles as bicycle ways, tired but pleased at how the US people had done overall, the hospitality of the Dutch tournament organizing committee, and the good relationships between athletes. It was raining very lightly, and the damp air of Holland was refreshing after being inside all day at the tournament.
	We had to be on the train early the next morning. There was no post-tournament party. We boarded the train at the station in Eindhoven, and most of us slept for the two hour trip back to Amsterdam, rolling past the farms, canals, and interesting houses of Holland. We had some time when we reached the Amsterdam Airport, and ate breakfast -- at Burger King -- and did some quick shopping. Brief goodbyes and thank you's and we were off to separate terminals for the long flights back to the United States. Trish and I were again alone, waiting for a Delta flight back to Atlanta. We reflected on the quality of the experience that the US and OTC team members had been able to receive, and marvelled somewhat that, by Betsy's good planning, the trip had cost less for the USTU than a trip, say, to the US Open. It had been an extraordinarily inexpensive trip to the USTU, and yet had provided an extremely high quality of competition experience for US athletes, the kind of international experience so sorely lacking typically because of distance and expense. We knew the athletes had benefited, had been very well behaved, the coaches had done, we thought, a terrifically good job and Betsy had a firm control on every phase of the trip. Secretary General Kim had brought a reassuring presence, and it had been very rewarding for Heads of Team Jae Ro and myself to be able to have the privilege of working with and sharing the experience of our US athletes, and to take their experiences back with us to share with our Taekwondo community. Josh Coleman had broken his hand in five places at the US Open, and so while he could not compete, he was able to attend as a coach. He did a fine job, and I was impressed how well he, Coach Lee and Coach Pejo got along with the competitors, and yet took their jobs very seriously. A dedicated and experienced coaching staff that our team was fortunate to have. Trish had done her usual extraordinary job. She is beloved not only the US Team, but by other teams as well whom she willingly helps out. They know that she knows what she is doing, and she is perhaps the biggest bargain there is for the USTU in terms of what she brings on these trips both in reassurance and expertise.
	The competition experience was first class. Ten of these a year, and the US would be on top, judging from the commitment and dedication of the US athletes. They are a great bunch. I had mentioned to them at the start that it was a privilege for them to represent the United States in international competition, but it was a privilege for me to be with them, and there to support them. In their conduct and in their performance, I was able to reflect on the long trip home that it had been, indeed, a privilege to share the experience with our fine athletes. The best we can give them in return is opportunity, the Dutch Open was a terrific opportunity, and they made the best of it.