Winston Dollee
This is my first WKC ever, and I am so grateful and honored to represent The Netherlands.
Before this tournament I struggled with my self confidence and skill. It wasn’t until the summer seminar in Rotterdam under the guidance of Nabeyama sensei that i started to believe more in my capabilities. The seminar was visited by team members of other nationalities, such as Germany and Lithuania, so everybody trained hard and gave me more spirit.
Fast forward to the WKC, we had the Dutch Ladies ending with pride against the Korean Ladies. They had such fierce spirit, it inspired us all to be even better.
During the team matches we began full spirit and came out of the group stage.
Eventually we had to fight Sweden, they brought a very experienced team. It was a close fight until the end, but we lost eventually.
Our journey from that moment did not stop but merely paused. We are going to come out even stronger for the years to come!
Pepijn Boomgaard
As this was my first World Championship, I was quite nervous. There were many strong competitors from all over the world, and I was not sure what kind of kendo to expect from all of these different people. I was very happy to see that kendo has grown to the point where every country is able to send a capable team. Of course, Japan is still dominating the scene, but countries like Korea are quickly catching up. They put up a good fight against Japan in the finals, refusing to give up until the very end.
Watching all these high level matches was very humbling, and has shown me that I still have much to learn. I feel more motivated than ever to train hard, and I hope that I get the chance to fight for my country again at the next WKC.
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