On behalf of the ITF, Master Ruairi O’Brien, TAEKWON-DO ALLIANCE Ireland, conducted a Master Class in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo from 16 to 18 February 2024. Master O’Brien was assisted by Boo-Sabums Michael and Konstantin Dittrich, BELGIAN –ITF.

There were a series of training sessions scheduled to start on 16. February 2024 early in the morning. The first session was open for Black Belts and Colour Belts. More than 150 participants attended this training where the emphasis was on basic techniques and a number of Colour Belts tuls.

A further training was conducted in the evening of the same day, however, as the training venue was out-doors was stopped after a while because of a tropical rainstorm.

The following day , 17 February 2024 another Master Class was conducted with the participation of more than 50 Black Belts  from 6 provinces all over the DR of Congo.

The training focused on performing the first 9 ITF Tuls and the correct application of the Sine-Wave.

The overall performance was satisfactory as the Congolese participants, taking into account that they have a predominant background in WT and Karate, began performing ITF Taekwon-Do.

The Master Class was concluded on Sunday 18 February 2024 with another 3 hours training with 40 Black Belt participants, mainly Members of the “National Team”.

Master O’Brien was satisfied with the overall conduct of the mission to the DR Congo given the successful commencement of the integration process of becoming ITF practitioners.

It is planned that the National team of DR CONGO will visit Europe to participate in the “ITF OPEN The Netherlands” on 25 May 2024 and on the 1 June 2024 in the Belgian competition the “BRABANT CUP”. The week between the two competitions will be used for a training camp in Belgium hosted by BEL-ITF.   A further visit by a Congolese Delegation to Belgium will be conducted in the framework of the envisaged Master Class led by GM Nicholls, taking place on 28/29 September 2024         

                    

Ruairi O’Brien, VII ITF

Michael Dittrich, III Belgian ITF