People of HMB movement
Matija Djanješi?,
captain of National team of Croatia
…concerning his Team, and surprising of “Battle of the Nations” in Croatia
There are several reenactment groups in Croatia representing different periods, different medieval times. When I started practising reenactment I had already knew about “Battle of the Nations” (it was 5 years ago). After all those years I can say it is the best thing in the world. And when we found out about such tournament, we said, “One day we will do this for sure!”
Years passed by, more and more countries joined the movement. But we were not sure whether we were ready for that. We knew that we needed more training, more experience and more time to get ready.
But here is 2014, and “Battle of the Nations” came to Croatia, and we are participating! To put it mildly, we were pleasantly surprised by the fact the Championship would take place in our country, so we didn’t have any other choice. We had few months and we trained as hard as possible to get ready.
Although National team of Croatia is a new team, we have ten fighters. They are from several different associations. And they will represent the Republic of Croatia at the World Championship in Historical Medieval Battle. Although we were time-limited, we started with serious trainings and preparations. All of us trained individually at home. Once or twice a week we gathered to develop tactics and possible battle combinations.
As a captain, I am responsible for supervising team members in order to use their maximum potential and bring the team to a higher level. Every day I spend some time thinking of a perfect combination. There is not much time left, so the final combination of team members who will participate in the tournament will be determined in Trogir. As for me, we have good chances for victory. We will fight on our home field where we will have significant audience support on the one hand, and no climate problems on the other. Our determination and motivation will guide us through the tournament.
Our main focus is group battles “5 vs 5”. We have eight fighters for that. Also we have 3 fighters for triathlon duel. We even thought about women’s category, but due to the lack of funds we had to omit it this year. We also have one member from Budapest, Hungary – Zsigmond Ádámffy. Zsigmond is a good friend of us… small, strong and tough guy! Hungary is out of the tournament, so their guy will be with us.
Our expectations for the tournament are realistic. Our goal is to pass the first round of battles and then continue as further as we can. As it is our first tournament, every defeat and every victory will be a good lesson. It will be a new experience for all of us. We expect to meet a lot of great people, explore new things and expand our horizons and knowledge in order to be better in the future.
Interview by
Elisabeth Irha
HMBIA NEWS
