Norway makes its Battle of the Nations debut

10 Mar 2019 23:16
Battle of the Nations sees its 10th edition this year and once again more countries have joined the already impressive list of participants. One of the newcomers in this celebratory edition is the land of the Viking spirit: Norway. HMBIA News spoke with their captain, Anders Gjestad Rugsveen.

“The sport has been in Norway for some time. When we created a club in the capital Oslo this really helped us to recruit new people. Norway is still very new in this sport when it comes to the international scene.”

The team has some tournament experience and is ready to take on Battle of the Nations.

“We plan to participate in the 5v5 and hopefully join as mercenaries in the larger fights. We will also participate in all 1v1 categories for male and the sword and shield for female.
 

We have participated in some smaller scale tournaments with our brothers in Sweden and we have also had a small tournament in the city of Tønsberg, Norway’s oldest city, where we also had teams from France and Denmark visiting. This is my first year as team captain and we have chosen to have our main focus on BotN this year.”

The Norwegian team is a very diverse group with vastly different backgrounds. Team members came to the HMB sport from American Football, boxing and MMA, but they also have a police officer, a teacher, a mechanic and a trainer with 20 years of experience as a fencing instructor in their ranks.
“We all bring something different into the team and even though we are a small team we are very active. For the next HMB World Championship Battle of the Nations we hope to field twice as many and participate in the larger fights.”

Of course, Battle of the Nations 2019 has something special in store; the 150 vs 150 mass battle. Anders shares his thoughts on the big mass battles.

“We are very eager and hope that we can join one of the sides. We were also hoping to create the old Kalmar Union with Denmark, Sweden and Finland for this year’s 30 vs 30 but it looks like we are a bit short this year.”

Though the team of Norway has participated in tournaments before, they are excited to join the other teams at Battle of the Nations. “We do hope to meet a lot of good competition, but we know from what we have heard that we are sure to find that in BotN. We are also looking forward to the social gatherings.”

Battle of the Nations may bring the Norwegian team face to face with opponents they have never fought, which in itself is an exciting prospect. However, the Norwegian captain shared he still hopes to meet a team closer to home.

 
“We always hope to meet the Swedes, as there are always friendly rivalry between our two counties.”

Viewers can recognize the Norwegian team by their red and blue surcoat. “Our surcoat will be simple and represent the Norwegian colours and the cross that make up the Scandinavian flags. It will also contain the golden lion representing the Norwegian coat of arms. It’s one of the oldest in Europe.”

The Norwegian team brings their ancestral Viking spirit to the tournament. Though they are small, they are ambitious and eager to fight. “We hope we can show the world that Norway is a team to look out for in the future.”

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BATTLE OF THE NATIONS

2021

1st-4th July
Oradea Fortress, Romania