International Taekwon‑Do Federation

We were greeted by the ITF Tunisia president, Mr. Mohamed Hammami, the ITF Tunisia Vice-President, Mr. Choukri Snoussi and Mr. Issam Mahmoudi from the Organizing Committee.

We were driven straight to our hotel which was located in Tunis City.

On 16th March, There has been held  the International Umpire Seminar  with the assistance of Mr. Nadir Ait Makhroub, ATF Chairman of the Umpire Committee. There were approximately 40 umpires who assisted including 5 umpires from Morocco and 2 from Algeria. We went through the most important rules and regulations concerning Patterns and Sparring with a powerpoint presentation in French and with explanations in Arabic.

Next in the afternoon the International Technical Seminar with around 50 participants was held by Master Jaren Phillips, ITF EB member.

The Seminar included a warm-up, stretching and followed by Fundamental Movements, Gup Patterns and it was followed by many technical questions especially regarding Sine Wave, Stances and the Theory of Power.

Mr. Lounis, 4th Dan, from Algeria assisted Master Phillips during the Seminar.

Judge Annali Basson, President of Taekwon‑Do Federation of Africa, arrived at the stadium that afternoon straight from the airport, all participants stopped their respective activities and showed respect to the TFA President including the protocol of presentations of all of the ITF Tunisian NGB in attendance.

On the first day, Friday 17th of the African Cup Clubs competition, there were an estimated 486 participants from 86 different clubs competting in  3 Rings.

Special thanks should express to Master Sitnilski, Master Phillips and Mr. Spasov and the Tunisian ITF members really have made a great effort to learn the ITF Tuls and it was demonstrated during this first day of competition.

Mr. Nadir Ait Makhroub coordinated the umpiring job during all the Championship.

Later that afternoon, Judge Annali Basson and Master Franc Diaz were invited to visit the Tunisian Ministry of Sports and  spoke with Mr. Maher Mraihi, General Director of Sports.

He explained that they entirely support ITF in Tunisia and also spoke about the different sports projects that they are developing.

The visitors told him that we were very grateful for the support given to ITF by the Tunisian government.

On this second day,18th Saturday of competition it started with the Sparring.

The first half of the day went really smooth with a very rapid adaption to the electronic system thanks to the help of Master Sitnilski and Mr. Spasov for setting it up and explaining it to all the Umpires.

The standard of sparring was quite impressive, from the children right up to the Veteran categories.

At around midday, there was a tragic incident where a small boy, Youssef,Ben Ahmed, drowned in a nearby agricultural canal, the boy, was Mr. Khaled Ben Ahmed’s son (Technical Director ITF Tunisia). We were all devastated and in shock by this terrible incident, I was asked if we should cancel the competition, I left that decision to the Organizing Committee.

The father spoke to everyone in the sports pavilion and said that it was he wished everyone to continue and dedicate this championship to the memory of his son and he knew how important this championship is to everyone in ITF Tunisia.

The competition finished very late that day.

On 19th, Saturday, they started off in the morning during the “morning prayer” with a minute silence in memory of the young boy.

The Governor of Manouba Mr. Mohamed Cheikh Rouhou  (Tunis City Region) along with the Regional Delegate for Sports Mr. Mohsen Msaddak visited the competition and gave out plaques and trophies.

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Kamal Deggich, also assisted the competition and awarded the medals and the  trophies to the proud winners.

Master Franc Diaz, Deputy-Chairman of ITF Tournament Committee had the chance to speak to both of them and on behalf of ITF and he  expressed an immense gratitude for supporting ITF Taekwon‑Do in Tunisia.

All The competition finished very successful and all the participants were very happy.

Special Gratitude to :

TUNISIA ITF members

-     Mr. Mohamed Hammami (President ITF Tunisia)

-     Mr. Coukri Snoussi (Vice-President ITF Tunisia)

-     Mr. Issam Mahmoudi (Organising Committee ITF Tunisia)

-     Mr. Khaled Ben Ahmed (Technical Director ITF Tunisia)

-     Mr. Mohamed El Felah Smaidia (Communications & Marketing ITF Tunisia)

-     Mr. Akram Hammami (Official translator ITF Tunisia)

-     Mr. Nadir Ait Makhroub (ATF Chairman Umpire Committee)

-     Mr. Si Lakhal Lounis (ITF Algeria)

ITF officials

-     Judge Annali Basson (President TFA & ITF EB Member)

-     Master Jaren Phillips (President ITF South Africa & ITF EB Member)

-     Master Vergiliy Sitnilski (Vice-President ITF Bulgaria)

-     Mr. Nikolay Spasov (International Umpire)

Master Franc Diaz