Just spent the week covering this event - which is the key TKD event, pre-Rio 2016 - for the WTF.
Some comments:
- Great time had by all;
- All the athletes are lovely kids, a credit to their sport;
- Some excellent final fights, some mediocre, some very dull (esp the women's fights);
- To see quality TKD in action, look up Servet "The Cheetah" Tazegul (world champ) Aaron Cook (bronze);
- For an entertaining "David vs Goliath" fight see the Russian Ruslan Poiseev take on Farzan, the "Iranian Tsunami." Great seminar in little vs large.
I have to say I really loved Chelabyinsk, the capital of Russia's South Urals province; One of the friendliest places I have ever been (Case in point: With a fellow hack and a couple of TV chaps we hit the main club in town, "Opera." Straight out of a Segal or Van Damme movie: EVERY guy in the place was ripped, EVERY chick the joint was supermodel gorgeous. Ended up wrestling and drinking vodka with the local gangstas ending the night drunker than I have been in decades - and the next day waking up in my hotel, finding out not only had I not lost anything, but I had not spent a single ruble. Remarkable!)
The Russians really know how to put on sport events. Excellent organization all round, a blueprint for this kind of event. (Chelyabinsk last year hosted the World Judo Championships, so they are getting good at this.)