From November 26th to 29th 1998, the European Wushu championships were held in Athens (Greece). I was invited as the Dutch national coach for Sanshou - Chinese free sparring. On Sunday, November 22nd, just a few days before the championships started, George Andronikidis had organized a demo night. George, an old acquaintance of mine, is teacher of the Shaolin school in Argos; he had asked me to participate in his demo night. Of course I fulfilled his request with pleasure.

Saturday, November 21st, I arrived at the airport of Athens where George welcomed me. He invited me to his house in Argos where we had something to eat. Later on he took me to a hotel in Mycenae where he picked me up the next morning to go to his school for a little bit of training.

The training was directed towards practicing for the demo that same night. Some young pupils were to assist me in a Chi Kung demonstration act.

At 20.00 the event started with the introduction of the participating schools. In the introductory speech, the schools were thanked and - being the only foreign guest - I received a special word of welcome.

I opened with a Sieuw Hung Kuen demo - an intermediar traditional Hung Gar form. Different demos followed, such as Karate and Taekwondo, performed by Martial Arts schools from Argos and vicinity.

For the second time after my accident, I performed a 'drunkard boxing'. In the finale, the crowd of 300 people cheered enthusiastically when I performed a part of my regular Chi Kung act, demonstrating flexibility and strength; sitting in a split, the assistants lifted me by my legs and put my legs (still in split position) at two chairs after which they piled blocks of stone on my back.

The following Monday and Tuesday, I trained pupils of the Shaolin School of George and I had an interview on the radio in which I was asked to elaborate on my activities in the Netherlands. By Wednesday it was time to go to Athens, where in the mean time the Dutch Wushu team had arrived.

The Dutch Sanshou team players had excused for personal reasons. Therefore, my duties as coach were minimized. So, I had time for taking video shots, for interviews with reporters of several sports magazines and to talk to many old acquaintances.

The Dutch Wushu team performed well: ending in the second place in Taolu amongst the 20 participating countries. But even aside from our performance, I really enjoyed these European Wushu Championships: the general level of the participants was high. I was most struck by:

Bao Xian Fei from the Netherlands. He performed well; the results of his dedicated training really show.

Ajigirei Djamal from Russia. A real martial artist! He demonstrated a very thorough Nanquan form and a splendid Daoshu form. For the exhibition event he stood out with the high quality of his Bagua form, an internal style, rather than showing off with flashing salto's and other acrobatic stunts.

The Ukranian women: their Taolu performances were really good.

The Italian team, including Giorgio Pasotti, performed a beautiful Duiling.

The French team. A very dedicated team, this time next to their Sanshou star Mathieu Toulza, a number of talented martial artists from which we will surely hear a lot more in the near future.

The championships were concluded with a dinner for all participants, followed by a party in which Wushu stylists from all countries brotherly/sisterly in good spirits shared the dance floor.

Earl Blijd