August 20, in Tampere (Finland) everybody could visit and support and even participate in “Hakkapeliitta”- 2016 tournament. It was a quite interesting international event and HMBIA News decided to share more details with our followers. We interviewed Tero Oksala, main coordinator of the tournament.

Tero Oksala:

“Personally, I think that event was successful and the audience really enjoyed it. We learned a lot and this knowledge will come in handy when we start the organization of the next event. After this event several people will know me and my team. Each and every organizer has to remember that there is always a way to improve and to bring something to a higher level. Financial side of the question is very important, thankfully local volunteers helped as much as they possibly could to provide the minimum funding. Big thanks goes to all volunteers who were part of the staff of the event. Some things are impossible to work out by yourself!”.

There were fights in category “3 vs 3″ and profights. And the results are as follows:

Buhurts:

“Old Friends” – Gold medal, “Nordburg” – silver medal, “Helsinki” – Bronze medal and “Tampere” – 4th place.

Profights results:

Sami Lappeteläinen vs Dmitry Kulebakin (15 points – 48 points)

Roosa Aaltonen vs Tatjana Derbeneva (38 points – 58 points)

Joonas Lammasniemi vs Evgeny Ageev (9 points – 25 points)

Joonas Kunnela vs Pasha Truelove (29 points – 35 points)

Tarik Vann vs Nikolai Bykov (52 points – 65 points)

Janne Tankka vs Pavel Bondarenko (5 points -4 points). Technical Victory went to Pavel in first round.

Arttu Mikkonen vs Artem Vasilev (25 points – 45 points)

All the videos from tournament can be viewed on the Medieval Combat Sport Finland Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHyUJLFMtOTeSmb0QTvBEbQ and of course on the Facebook event page – Hakkapeliitta WMFC First Class Tournament.

It is almost impossible to organize tournaments without any financial help from sponsors. And it is a big problem in every sport, not only in HMB. Tero Oksala and his friends are trying to solve this problem. They already started to make inquiries, especially for sponsors, of what they would like to see in the event next time.

Tero Oksala:
“Arranging the event of such scale for the first time is tough and there is always something that can be done better. I have visited several tournaments as a fighter and I know what should be improved and what I would like to see as a fighter”.

Also Tero have arranged smaller events in Finland and participated as a spectator. Such participation helps him to understand what the audience might want to see. He is confident that it is the most right thing to do, as audience – is one of the most important parts of any sport.

Tero Oksala:
“We always try to achieve more, by using various kinds of marketing researches and constantly promoting the sport, these are the key aspects of our success in the future.. Each event is an important indicator of how HMB is received by the Finnish (and other countries’) audience.”

By the way, we have interviewed Tarik Vann, fighter from Australia about his impressions of the event:

“The team and everyone involved though were at their very best and the spirit of the community and the staff were great. The hospitality of the drivers and the organisers and the support team were just amazing. The experience of having all my problems fixed with a smile on their face and to have understanding and caring organisers ready to handle my high adrenaline, lack of preparation and under packed luggage (traveling by air) whenever i approached was fantastic. Special mention to Nikita and Roosa for their quick and calm solutions to all issues.

I look forward to any more events like this run by the same team especially if they have learnt from their lessons they experienced here”.

HMBIA News also looks forward for more events in Finland and thanks for the interview to Tero Oksala and Tarik Vann.

HMBIA News