General Remark
The 8th Mombasa Open Tong-Il Moo-Do International Martial Arts
Championship 2020 was held from December 20 to 21 at Aga Khan
Academy in Mombasa, Kenya with 140 participants from 10 countries. It was not uncertain until last minutes if we could have still the International
Tournament because of the pandemic of Coronavirus. Kenyan
Government did not give permission to any tournament of the contact
sports like Martial Arts for the safety of the participants. But with the tireless effort with strong conviction, Master Clarence MwakioIngalwa, the Continent Leader of TIMD Africa and the Chairman of TIMDKenya, persuaded the government to hold the tournament receiving thegreat support from Senate, Samuel Poghisio, and finally the government
gave the permission.
The special precautions were taken against the infection of
Coronavirus. At the entrance, the staff checked the body temperatureof whoever entered the venue, and checked if they were wearingthemask. During the tournament, all the participants were given the bagof masks, sanitizer spray and wet tissue for sterilization. Before mat wereused, they were wiped with bactericidal solution. Whenever the
competitors finished using the sparring equipments, medical staff
disinfected them. Time to time, the announcements were made toremind everyone to keep the social distance and wear the mask. Prior
to the tournament, all the participants from overseas were requiredtocarry the document which proved that the one who took the PCR test
was diagnosed “negative”.
Thanks to the media of TV, Newspaper, Magazine, and radio, the
interviews of The Leader of Majority Party in Kenyan Senate, Samuel
Poghisio, President of WTMF, Takamitsu Hoshiko, the Continental Leader of
TIMD Africa, Clarence Mwakio Ingalwa, International TIMD Instructor, LeoCarumba, Kenyan TIMD Instructor, Hilary Wahanda, and some of the
participants from oversea were publicized to the people of Kenya duringand after the tournament. Since the 1st Mombasa Tournament, TIMDhas
become more popular year by year because of the media covering theexciting articles of the tournaments with many photos. Many of the participants haven’t had the enough training because of thecancelation of using the venue, and the participants from overseas hadthe fatigue after the long trip to Mombasa, but they had shown the TIMDspirit of fighting and overcoming every limitation and difficulty with
perseverance and indomitability through their performance during thecompetitions and demonstration. The VIPs were touched by their inspiringperformance.
