After the open championship in Alessandria another hapkido federation (Italian Combat Hapkido Federation) challenged us. We participated in a open championship in Sardinia (one of the two Italian islands) on April 24, 2005. They were waiting for us this time…but we won the Form competition (Italian TSD/HRD Clubs – 1st place) and took a 2nd place in demo (Italian TSD/HRD Clubs – 2nd place).

In the light contact competition, an unbelievable thing occurred: they changed the rules of the competition during the matches!!! No throws, no protection, and full contact rules.  They invited them to a knife fight then pulled out guns.  That is truly dishonourable.  What is even more appalling is that the fighters were not even Hapkido students, but they brought out Muay Thai fighters, specially invited to fight against our HRD/TSD students who have defeated them in a previous tournament.  In conclusion our Italian brothers and sisters faced defeat as they were not prepared to fight full contact matches, but they demonstrated Im Jun Moo Teach – Courage never to retreat in the face of the enemy and gave it their best shot.  Instructor Mattiucci will avoid this type of unfair competition and malicious organizations and will train the students harder to meet any form of challenges, is such a case should rise again.