On February 28, the first HMB Soft tournament was held in Petah Tikva (Israel). It’s no secret that this direction of HMB sports is only developing, but Israeli athletes are working to popularize fighting in soft armor. 

So, the result of the organization team’s work was the tournament, which for the first time received the official appellation – “HMB Soft”. A feature of this tournament was the experimental category for adults “HMB Soft 18+”.

In connection with the Coronavirus panic, the teenage part of the tournament was not numerous – out of five planned participants, only two athletes fought for gold of the category 12-13 years old.

“Because of the Coronavirus epidemic panic, the number of children in the competition was much lower than expected, but despite everything, the participants showed a good level of fighting, they learned a lot and enjoyed the tournament,”- said Mikhail Morgulis.

The places here are as follows:

1st place: Sarel Gitelman, Rotem Club (Karmiel)
2nd place: Anton Solodov, club “MFC” (Petah Tikva)

Mikhail Morgulis, a representative of the HMB Soft tournament organizing team and Anton Solodov`s coach, noted that his pupil started fights in soft armor only 4 months ago. Mikhail is pleased with his fights, but there is an analysis of the fights and hard training ahead. 

Mikhail also said that the second HMB Soft tournament will be held in Israel soon:

“We plan to organize an HMB Soft tournament specifically for children. Tentatively, the tournament is scheduled for the end of March 2020. “ 

In addition to young men, adults also fought for the victory. Here the competition was much higher – 12 fighters. Athletes fought in 2 nominations: the first Israelis took the rules from the duel HMB of the Triathlon category with all the regulations and timings, but using soft weapons. The second is fully consistent with the rules and regulations of HMB Soft and was, according to Michael, experimental.

The results of fights in the category “HMB Soft 18+” Triathlon:

1st place: Oleg Morozov, club “Knights of Jerusalem”

2nd place: Alexander Chebotar, club “MFC”

3rd place: Vitaliy Trubnikov, club “MFC”.

The results of fights in the category “HMB Soft 18+”:

1st place: Oleg Morozov, club “Knights of Jerusalem”

2nd place: Israel Gitelman, Rotem Club

3rd place: Mikhail Sheinberg, club “Avangard”

According to Mikhail Morgulis, Oleg’s result is quite predictable, because the club that he represents specializes in duels and he is a very experienced fighter.

 Also, a seminar was held for marshals of HMB Soft discipline by a representative of HMB Soft Russia, the experienced HMB Marshal Ali Askerov, as an extra to this tournament. Some Israeli judges passed the HMB SOFT certification and now the Israelis have the opportunity to conduct competitions in this discipline more often! The details of the workshop will be published soon.

As you can see, the end of the winter in Israel turned out to be very tough, and we can only congratulate the winners of all ages and wait for the children’s HMB Soft tournament at the end of March.