Country in numbers – the story of New Zealand

21 Mar 2018 17:30
New Zealand is involved in HMB sport for almost six years. They are great athletes and really enjoy HMB. David Briscoe is a captain of the local National Team. He is an experienced fighter and respected person in the whole HMB movement worldwide. David has been in the sport since 2014, he was a part of the National Team of New Zealand in Prague in 2015, and has been at every tournament in this country since then. He has attended five international tournaments, including two “Dynamo Cup” events. So, David told about the statistics and a level of the HMB sport development in his country. Here is the information about New Zealand!
 

When did the HMB start in New Zealand?
– It was long time ago! HMB has been in New Zealand since 2012.

How many Clubs are in your country?
– We have nine HMB clubs/teams in New Zealand.

How many certificated national and international Marshals do you have?
– We have two internationally certified Marshals, and a pool of about 10 other Marshals. I think that it`s a good number for New Zealand.

Are there any kind of rivalry between clubs?
– We have a lot of rivalry between clubs, with the Tauranga and Waikato Armoured Combat clubs setting a high benchmark for us all to achieve.


How do you evaluate the qualification level of fighters in your country? Could you please describe with some examples?
– We use our major tournament, the Tattoo Cup as a qualification tournament, where we evaluate the level of our fighters. We have a selection panel of experienced fighters who select fighters. Our skills are constantly improving, with our fights getting much more competitive.

How many tournaments were held in 2017?
– We have about six tournaments per year.

Do you have particularly strong outstanding fighters? Could you tell about them?
– We do have some strong fighters, but probably the one most looked up to would be Charlie Tapsell, the captain of Tauranga Armoured Combat, and previous captain for New Zealand. He is a big, strong fighter, with lots of experience. He has been doing the sport since New Zealand started, and has been on the World Championship in HMB “Battle of the Nations”.
 

Summarize and plans for the future.
– We have plans to develop the sport here, and encourage young people to take up the sport. We aim to be sending stronger teams to the “Battle of the Nations” every year.

What was new in the HMB movement in New Zealand last year?
The last year saw our first soft combat fights for juniors, and the Buhurt League has been met with much excitement. Last year also saw the introduction of three new tournaments, creating more opportunities for our fighters. 2017 also saw the introduction of about 12 new fighters to the sport here.

Do fighters treat HMB as a hobby or as a serious kind of sport and try to gain skills as much as possible?
– There is a big drive in New Zealand to treat HMB as a real sport, not just a hobby, and fighters are trying really hard to constantly improve and up skills.
 
What are the tasks for developing HMB for the nearest future?
– The biggest tasks for the sport in New Zealand are to grow our pool of Marshals, and to gain official recognition for the sport, which will make it easier to get support for fighting and traveling. Traveling to tournaments is a big issue for us, which often limits what fighters can attend tournaments.

As we can see, the HMB sport in New Zealand grows from year to year. Our editorial office would like to thank David Briscoe for the interview and wish him and the whole HMB movement in the country more interesting tournaments, fast improvement and, traditionally, can`t wait to see the National Team of New Zealand in the lists of the World Championship in HMB “Battle of the Nations”-2018 in Rome.

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BATTLE OF THE NATIONS

2021

1st-4th July
Oradea Fortress, Romania