President Cup & Australian Open 2025

Gold Coast / Australia

With a fifth place finish at the G3 President's Cup and an early exit at the G2 Australian Open, but with nine more world ranking points to our name, that sums up our trip Down Under. The points will move us up one place next month. The experience we gained, starting with training in Singapore and the two tournaments in Australia, is hugely important for our continued development.

The athletes from Taipei, Thailand and Hong Kong arrived in droves and set a standard that was close to World Championship level. The level of performance was incredible. Other top scorers from around the world also attended. For the handful of athletes from Europe, it was the ultimate wake-up call about where the journey is headed.

Unfortunately, it must be said that our continent is missing out on the development of poomsae. Europe is reveling in the spirit of years gone by, when it was considered a pioneer of the poomsae movement and still played a role. Unfortunately, we have become stuck in a certain ego trip and have neglected to look beyond our own horizons.

Because Kyorugi-driven associations misunderstand the international Poomsae hype and do not promote it accordingly, small isolated solutions ultimately remain, which take on the challenge independently of the nation.

One must also consider the enormous effort our association puts into this if it wants to remain competitive in the global business arena.

The bottom line is that this trip was well worth it in many ways. As a small club, we can all be proud to have made this trip possible and to have been part of it.