If we try to describe the tournament in China which took place here on May 2, in one word, then it would be “HOT”. This is how Gao Peng, the representative of the organizing group of the event and the captain of the Half Ton HMB team, began his story about the tournament to our HMBIA News reporter.
Firstly, it was really hot. There was an impression that even the sun peeped into the tournament to support the teams – the air temperature reached 39C.
“The weather was like in hell and many fighters got heat stroke. It made us hold the 21vs 21 in the morning, then at 17:00 started 5vs5 fights. However, the fighters, who missed fighting in armor, were not going to cancel the battles. Love for HMB turned out to be stronger than the heat and despite the unbearable temperature, the first day of the tournament was intense and interesting”.
On the second day, according to Gao, it was cooler and it was much more comfortable to fight for medals in duel nominations and profights.
“The second meaning of Hot in our case was the understanding that the level of our fighters is much better than before”, said Gao.
And the third meaning of Hot was the visit of Chinese most famous director Gordon Chan(陈嘉上). Worldwide we know him as the director of the Fist of Legend movie where Jet Li starred in the lead role.
“Mr. Chan watched all the fights with great interest and after the tournament we had an opportunity to speak a lot about HMB and the movie, based on it. He said, HMB is such a great sport that he will be planning a movie about it! It was unbelievable!”
Also, we should mention Hot in understanding the emotions of one of The Red Crag participant Xingjian Li, who came back to his motherland after 2 years of absence.
“I recently went back to China from the USA. It has been two years since the last time I met my family and my friends in China because of Covid.
I was very excited to meet all my old and new friends and watch them fight. And I also felt good to see everyone’s progress in two years. China started buhurt in 2017. Within four years, their competitive level becomes better and better and also makes me proud of being a part of this community and excited to see how they will perform at the future BotN.
Participating in this tournament is also one reason I want to come back” told us Xingjian Li.
The last but not the least sense of Hot was the solid number of spectators who came to the tournament. According to Gao Peng, most of the people who came to the tournament were tourists who came to visit the ancient town where the tournament took place. They saw the fights and stayed to watch them. Also there were people who came here specially for the tournament.
“Now we have a number of enthusiasts in China who will come to the HMB tournament no matter where it is held!”
After the end of the event all participants – fighters, support groups, organizers, marshals had the festive dinner where they had an opportunity to talk, share some news and just to be together as old friends and like minders. And it was great to meet each other for the first time in a long time!
Also HMBIA News editorial office congratulates the winners of the tournament and wishes all HMB athletes of China to have a lot of interesting fights with tough opponents!
