Report

This year, France was the host of the European Championships. The competition took place at the Carpentier sports center in the south of Paris from October 30 to November 4. A notable addition this year was an extra three days of seminars and a day of free training in the period leading up to the competition. This resulted from the inclusion of the annual autumn Iaido seminar organized by the French federation. Over 300 representatives from 23 countries participated in the championships. The Polish team this year consisted of 11 members, including: Sebastian Kuzynin and Adam Majchrzak in the Mudan category, Łukasz Machura and Grzegorz Mrozik in the Shodan category, Daniel Demkiewicz in the Nidan category, Maciej Aleksandrowicz and Adam Kitkowski in the Sandan category, and Krzysztof Górnicki in the Godan category. Jarosław Wolny accompanied the team as a delegate from the Polish Kendo Federation (PZK). On the last day of the Iaido tournament, Michał Nowakowski, who was observing the Iaido competitors, was joined by Łukasz Machura and Adam Kitkowski, who also competed in Iaido, along with the remaining members of the five-person Jodo team: Joanna Dyjas (Mudan) and Marcin Wojtasik (Jodo team, Nidan).

The first day of the Championships was a Jodo seminar led by senseis: Matsui, Matsumura, Shiija, and Ishido. After a detailed demonstration of all kihon and initial kata interspersed with exercises, the participants were divided into groups. Shiija sensei took charge of the Mudan-Shodan group. I can only say that it was an incredibly educational experience. As the head of the Tokyo police dojo, sensei had no trouble conveying or enforcing what he expected from us, even though he spoke 50% in Japanese, 30% in Italian, and the rest was a mix of English and German... Matsui sensei's detailed explanations based on a yet unpublished English version of the new Seitei Jodo manual, supported by demonstrations from him and Matsumura sensei, clarified many important details. It is a pity that we cannot yet access a paper version of the material, but at least we now have an oral version of this manual presented by the authors themselves (Matsui and Matsumura).

The next day was the individual tournament. Four Poles participated: Joanna Dyjas and Michał Nowakowski in the Mudan category, and Adam Kitkowski and Łukasz Machura in the Nidan category. All the Poles advanced from their groups in first place.

In the knockout round, Joanna Dyjas had a bye in the first round. Michał Nowakowski (with Asia as tachi) defeated the Dutchman Steven Bergman and then faced last year's champion, Vlad Liviu, in the quarterfinals (the same one who won the Nidan category in Iaido). Unfortunately, this match ended with a score of 1:2 in favor of the Belgian, shattering dreams of the first Jodo medal at these championships. A few minutes later, Joanna Dyjas (this time with Michał as tachi) defeated the Swede Hendriksson, securing her place in the medal zone. In the semifinals, the same pairs faced each other again as in the quarterfinals, but this time the tachi switched places with the jo. Asia Dyjas and Dieter Coudyzer from Belgium, with Michał Nowakowski and Vlad Liviu as tachi respectively, fought for a spot in the final. Joasia won 3:0 and advanced to the final, where Vlad Liviu awaited her after defeating the representative from France 3:0.
In the second category of interest to us (Nidan), Łukasz Machura (with Adam as tachi) faced the Finn Reenpaa Timo in the quarterfinals and was set to compete against Adam Kitkowski. Thus, there would be no two medals in this category, but one was already certain. The brotherly duel was won by Łukasz 3:0, advancing him to the medal zone. There, he faced the second of the famous Dumoulins (having already defeated the first in the elimination group) and advanced to the final with a score of 3:0. In the second semifinal, Ronny Dumoulin lost to the Frenchman Payen.

After a lunch break and rest, all final matches took place in the central shiai-jo. This time, out of the six finals held, the Poles were present in "only" two, but we had representatives in just those two categories. The final ceremony began with a demonstration of Seitei Jodo performed by Matsui Sensei (tachi) and Matsumura Sensei (jo). I must admit, it was quite a sight, and I felt a bit awkward stepping out shortly after them with a sword to partner with Asia Dyjas in her match against the Belgian. Fortunately, the embarrassment faded with the command "hajime." Unfortunately, in this final, the Belgians proved to be better once again. Asia lost 1:2 in a very close match (according to outside observers and friendly foreign senseis) and earned a silver medal.

In the Nidan category, Łukasz Machura, with Adam Kitkowski as his partner, defeated the French representative 3:0, securing another gold medal (his second at these championships and third in his career). In the other categories, the winners were: Shodan: Sophie Noble (France), Sandan: Niklas Katia (Switzerland) ahead of Essig Sandra (Germany), with bronze going to Bruno Lehman from Switzerland and Lubomirov from England. In the Yondan category, there were no surprises: Kevin Groos from the Netherlands won. Similarly, in the Godan category, the gold went to last year's medalist Andy Watson from the UK.

The summary of the day was quite good. Out of four competitors, all four reached the quarterfinals without a loss. Then, two were eliminated by the later gold medalists, while the remaining two reached the finals, giving us (and themselves) much satisfaction with two more medals at these Championships.

The next day was the team competition. It started with a surprise. Contrary to previous traditions, the judges established extremely difficult kata sets for the team matches. Sempo had to perform kata 3, 4, and 5; chuken 7, 9, and 11; and taisho 8, 10, and 12! It should be noted that very few teams had a competitor with a 5th dan, and in several, including the Polish, Czech, Jordanian, Austrian, and Swedish teams, the highest-ranked members had second or third dan. This kata arrangement definitely favored countries with more experience in Jodo, such as France and Belgium, which were in our elimination group, as well as England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Italy.

In the first match, the Polish team (Adam Kitkowski, Marcin Wojtasik, Łukasz Machura, and reserve Michał Nowakowski) faced the French. Unfortunately, we lost 2:1. In the second match of this group, France defeated Belgium. The next match between Belgium and Poland would determine advancement to the knockout round. It should be remembered that Belgium won the medal classification in the individual tournament with five medals. In the first match, Adam Kitkowski won. The second match was fought by Marcin Wojtasik, who, after a great performance and regaining confidence after losing to the French, defeated the Belgian 3:0, bringing Poland into the KO phase. In the third match, Łukasz and Marcin displayed a wonderful fighting spirit, but the judges rated the Belgian performance higher. The entire match ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of Poland. Without false modesty, it can be said that this was one of the biggest surprises of these Championships.

After an organizational break, the KO phase began. In the quarterfinals, we faced a very strong Swiss team. Here, we did not perform as well, and although we lost the match 0:3, our competitors' performance was highly praised by the senseis observing the group matches, including Sensei Matsumura, who later commended the Polish performances in conversations with his students from France (Corrine and Daniel).
In the subsequent quarterfinals, the following results were recorded: England defeated Italy 2:1, France beat the Czech Republic 3:0, and the Netherlands won against Germany 2:1. In the semifinals, the teams of England and France faced off (2:1 for England) as well as the Netherlands and Switzerland. In the final, England defeated the Netherlands.

After the team tournament concluded, Jodo exams were held. Four Poles participated. Asia Dyjas and Michał Nowakowski were promoted to 1 dan, while Adam Kitkowski and Jarek Wolny were promoted to 3 dan in Jodo. It is worth noting that for the first time in Europe, exams were held up to 7 dan in Jodo. The EKF welcomed several new rokudans and nanadans. We were particularly pleased that our friendly French instructor duo from Marseille, Corine dit Moisson and Daniel Chabaud, teachers of the Warsaw group, also joined this elite group.

It is difficult to summarize this trip in any other way than to define it as a great success. In Iaido, there were 8 competitors and 4 medals; in Jodo, 4 competitors and 2 medals. Essentially, almost all Poles reached the quarterfinals in their categories. There were very good performances in the team tournaments, where we were very close to the medal zones. Additionally, there were numerous promotions to higher ranks and many warm words from high-ranking instructors from other European countries and members of the Japanese delegation. The Poles were noticeable at these Championships not only due to their white-and-red tracksuits, and may it continue to be so!