Teo, “The Golden Child” of Habitat
A thirteen year old from Beius, the son of the the first Habitat family in Romania, is the pride of Habitat for Humanity Beius.
Teofil Herghelegiu, known as Teo by his friends is the „golden child” of Habitat for Humanity Beius. But don’t think that he’s a singer or that it’s his stage name. No, he’s the Asihara Karate World Champion after he won the title at a competition held during 12-13 November 2011 in Bucharest. The event was attended by over 300 athletes from around the world, with the competition being held for the first time in Romania thanks to the good results that Romanian athletes have had in recent years. Teo has also had a significant contribution to these results, as he’s been learning the sport since he was 6 years old, even before he started school. After just 6 months of training he had won his first gold medal, but this was just the beginning of a whole series of awards that now fill the walls of his home and has now culminated with him winning the world title.
„It wasn’t easy, even if I’m used to these sorts of competitions. I knew about the championship since last year and it was then that I hoped that I would win a trophy, but I never thought that I would get the world title. I’m very happy and I have great hopes for the future in this sport” said Teo in front of his colleagues and teachers who gave him a standing of ovation when he returned to school after the competition.
To obtain this level of performance, Teo needed a lot of ambition and to put in a lot of preparation. For many months prior to the championship, he trained intensively and shortly before the competition he prepared with the national team in a week long course made up of two daily training sessions of two hours each.
Teo is the son of the first beneficiary family of a Habitat home in Romania. He was just two months old, when he moved into their home where his parents for 2 years had helped build together with other neighbours and volunteers. The Herghelegiu family prior to moving into a Habitat home, had been renting a small, cold room in an old house in Beius. But they believed that they can change their children’s and their own destinies if they have their own home.
“If we didn’t have this home, we wouldn’t even have had space for all the trophies that Teo has won. But on the other hand, I don’t think he would have had the chance to practise this sport and to achieve what he’s done, as he does much of his training at home”, said Vasile Herghelegiu, Teo’s father.
The TGC Club Beius where Teo is registered, has Gheorghe Toderici as the trainer, who for 12 years has been teaching martial arts to children from Beius. The club’s achievements have been growing year on year, with 6 athletes now participating in the national team: George Toma, 11 years old; Teo Herghelegiu, 13 years old; Bogdan Mihuţa, 13 years old; Alexandra Fărcuţ, 15 years old; Ana-Maria Paragină, 19 years old and Simona Bodin, 26 years old.
“Annually, we’ve participated at 2- 3 national competitions and we always came back with many medals. For example at the last national championship in May, we had 12 athletes competing and we obtained 14 medals and second place for clubs in the country. Now at the world championships, Teo won a gold medal for Kata and Bogdan won a bronze medal for Kumite,” said trainer Gheorghe Toderici.
