Vietnam Will Trained Abroad

The Vietnam National Track and Field team and the Karatedo team will join training sessions in Kunming, China from August 3 to September 9 and in Tokyo, Japan from August 14 to November 17 respectively.

The track and field team attending the training session in China includes coach Ho Thi Tu Tam together with five athletes namely Truong Thanh Hang, Do Thi Thao, Nguyen Dinh Cuong, Mai Van Tan, Tran Van Thang and Nguyen Van Ly.

It is expected that these training sessions will help Vietnamese athletes well-prepare for the third Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam and the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos this year.

Nhandan News

Italian thief rescued from angry tourists

A thief said thanks to police after his arrest put a stop to a beating from Korean tourists who he attempted to rob.

“I must thank you, they were massacring me,” the 48-year-old told police after he was arrested near the Theatre of Marcellus, in Rome’s historic centre.

The thief, from the northern region of Liguria, stole a handbag from a Korean family. He threatened the family with a knife when he was spotted and then tried to flee.

Two family members in their twenties chased the man for several hundred metres before flooring him with taekwondo moves. They disarmed the thief and continued to beat him.

A patrolling police officer intervened and arrested the thief immediately.

“Normally tourists will just call us and report the incidents,” the officer said. “In this case, the two got really excited and could have seriously injured the thief.”

The thief was transferred to a prison in Rome and will face robbery charges while the Koreans left after retrieving the handbag.

The Roman Forum

Bronze Stories From Asian Martial Arts

BANGKOK—Taekwondo prospects Jeffrey Figueroa and Marlon Avenido scored huge victories while Karla Alava came up with a close win on Tuesday to assure themselves of bronze medals in the Asian Martial Arts Games.

Figueroa, 23, dominated Abadl Muaadh Najiahmed of Yemen, 7-3, in the quarterfinal round of the bantamweight division, while Avenido, 20, clobbered Vo Huang Giao of Vietnam, 5-1, in the welterweight quarterfinal at the Indoor Stadium Huamark Sport Authority of Thailand.

Alava, 18, had a tougher match but managed a 3-2 win over 20-year-old Natthaya Sangsasiton of Thailand to reach the women’s bantamweight semifinals.

The semifinal matches were set on Tuesday. They are looking to match or surpass Kirstie Elaine Alora’s silver-medal finish in the women’s middleweight on Monday. Judoka Karen Ann Solomon also bagged bronze on Monday.

Kim Hong Sik, the Philippine team’s taekwondo coach, said his athletes did not make any adjustments after the first day when John Paul Lizardo, Alexander Briones and Crizabelle Vargas crashed out one after the other.

“Some days you are lucky, some days you are not,” said Kim. “They just need to do their best.”

Figueroa beat Oken Meitei Mutum of India, 5-0, in the first round while Avenido, a 2007 US Open gold medalist, had a first-round bye.

After her Thai opponent unleashed an axe kick to the head to tie the fight at 2-2 in the third and final round, Alava sneaked in a counter-45 for a 3-2 lead, then escaped with another axe kick that could have merited two points for the Thai.

“Tumama pero daplis lang,” described Alava, a Hotel and Restaurant Management student at the Far Eastern University who is in her first international competition as a senior member of the national team.

In muay at the Nimibutr Building National Stadium, the Filipino bets were eliminated also one after the other.

Light-welterweight Jonathan Polosan lost to Roman Semerin of Kazakhstan, 0-5, and bantamweight Romnick Pabalate was dispatched by Sattra Paleenaram of Thailand via the same score in the first round.

Maria Camille Manalo battles a Chinese on Wednesday, taekwondo’s final day of competition.

Wushu also begins on Wednesday at the Silpa-archa Building Central Stadium in Suphanburi Province with Mary Jane Estimar and Mariane Mariano opening their campaign in women’s sanshou.

Korea leads the medal tally with eight gold, four silver and two bronze medals, followed by Japan with 5-1-1, Kazakhstan (4-2-1) and Thailand (2-3-5).

Reuben Terrado
Business Mirrors

Fun With Taekwondo For Family

Parents looking for a way to get their children involved in a healthy activity have found taekwondo as an outlet that each can enjoy together.

For some families in Albert Lea taekwondo is a sport the entire family can enjoy and many participate together through Albert Lea Community Education at the Family Y on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The sport, which preaches discipline, lends itself well to parents with young children as an activity they can do together.

Instructor Bruce Thimmesch was first introduced to the sport when his daughters, Alexandra and Jessica, wanted to give it a try. His daughters asked if he would join them in the class and eventually all three became black belts.

“I had the rules with my daughters, if you test for your orange belt, you have to test for your black belt,” he said. “So therefore when I spoke those rules to them, I followed it myself.”

Thimmesch always had a desire to learn about the sport, which originated in Korea and has become the most popular form of martial arts, and when he daughters expressed an interest it gave him an opportunity to experience the sport.

“It boils down to a means for self-defense,” Thimmesch said. “But it’s a lot deeper than just being able to go out there and beat someone up. You have to have a lot of respect for each other.”

Thimmesch has been involved with taekwondo for six years now and runs the Albert Lea taekwondo club now. He said the time the sport allows him to spend with his daughters is invaluable and has made the family tighter.

“Sitting around you can be tight, but you get the actual interaction and seeing them progress and how you progress,” Thimmersch said.

“It’s definitely a world of difference.”

The family interaction aspect of the sport led Joshua Lair to get involved with taekwondo with his sons Tyler and Brady. It’s one of the few sports where father and son can be at the same level and work together on improving. Joshua and Tyler are both yellow belts after five months time while Brady is a white belt.

“The reason I started this was to be with them,” Joshua said. “They were kind of shy and I started doing it with them and now they came out of their shell.”

The repetition of movement stresses discipline while respect, honor and integrity are tenets of the sport. At a young age those can be good lessons to learn.

“It amounts to a life change really,” Thimmesch said. “You become basically at peace with yourself. I’ve seen some people that were quick to temper calm down faster.”

Thimmesch admits he was quick to temper at times, but through taekwondo he has learned to calm down. He patiently works with students as they try to master the number of moves involved with the sport. His daughters are on hand as well to assist him. Thimmesch is a third degree black belt while his daughters are second degree black belts.

It’s a sport Thimmesch says everyone can do and that certainly helps get families involved.

Nick Gerhadt
Alber Lea Tribune