LaJust Electronic Body Protectors were used at the recent Youth Olympic Games Selections, in Melbourne. Held at the Aqualink in Box Hill, the tournament was a small affair to select fighters in the age range of 15 and 16 years old to compete in Singapore YOG next year.
Western Australia was represented by 3 referees and fondly enough, only two fighters. The field of fighters were mostly Victorians, and to have 2 from WA out of 39 was okay. From memory, there were no fighters from Queensland.
Kennedy Blowfield’s division had 5 fighters, and being unseeded – Kennedy had to go through an elimination bout to enter the round-robin stage. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s first opponent (although also unseeded) appeared solidly built and almost a head taller than Kennedy. With the LaJust system, prior to each match, players must test out the system by kicking and scoring on the EBP with their feet; usually with 3 roundhouse kicks, 1 to the front and 1 to each flank. It was amazing how easily the point came up during the testing phase. During the middle of the match, it appeared to be a different affair on whether the EBP registers a point or not. Even with solid kicks, some accurate and some not, Kennedy walked away with fewer points and unable to enter the next phase of the selections. Better luck next time, Kennedy! (or should I say preparation?)
Teiha Gorton was the other WA representative. With only 3 in her division, she had a total of 2 fights and walked away with 2 wins to earn her Gold and a place with the YOG team. Congratulations and well done! More
Arriving at Brisbane Airport on Wednesday September 30, on a flight that is paid for by the National Governing Body is always a good feeling. Knowing that one of the perks of being an official is the possibility that the flights and accommodation are paid for, is fantastic!
Funny that, because all the (3) people I sat next to on my flghts (one to Sydney and then to Brisbane) were all on business trips too. So really, none of us paid our own way.
There was a plan beforehand, to possibly hire a vehicle for our West Australian official’s use. There were quite a few of us this year. Raffaele DiRenzo, Richard Huynh, Aleisha Vincent and Roy Khoh from ATA-WA. Additionally, M. Rajendran and Jenny Crutchet from ODK in WA; and Harry Kim from SWTA.
Unfortunately, the decision was to just catch taxis and cabs everywhere instead. It was difficult because we all arrived in Brisbane at different times and days. Despite being only about 20 minutes away from the airport, the cab-fare was just over $50.
Luckily, the place we were accommodated at – Carindale Hotel – was actually part of a shopping complex, no surprise it was called Carindale Shopping Centre. So getting extra food and accessories was only about a 200m walk away. Too bad we didn’t get much time to do any shopping.
Well do we have a fine story to tell from the 2009 Taekwondo Australia Nationals held recently during October 2009 in Brisbane.
Skip Sommerville, ATA Mandurah, as a young fledgling 52 year old – well he is not that young in age but still young in health, heart condition and still fine in physical fitness and prowess. Skip had been training hard for his poomsae and sparring competitions after the state tournament. Still nursing a shoulder injury and some hammy soreness, he perservered. He had been watching the nationals entries and was getting rather disappointed when at the final close of entries, there were no opponent for him in his entered division, the blue belt 50+ heavyweight division – he was the only entry. There was one other entry in the blue belt heavyweight category but this was in the lower age group category – the 41-50 age group (who was also unmatched).
Undeterred, he was asking if he could be paired off with Steven Bult from Queensland so he could have at least a fight, even though Skip would be slightly dis-advantaged being the older aged player. He searched high and low at the venue on the Saturday coloured belt comps day, and he found his likely opponent, and we also found Steven’s coach. That was where we began the negotiations so both players, at least could have a match fight. After much discussions, both Skip and Steven convinced the tournament organisers to give them a match play fight. So this was set.
But since this is to be a match play fight, there needed to be a prize, and Steven’s coach suggested the prize to be a pretty, tall, slim blonde. Incidentally Skip’s partner is pretty, tall, slim and blonde. So now Steven had to offer something to add to the prize, and since he was a pig farmer, we suggested that he offered his farm up. We thought that was fair – the farm and the blonde. The prize was winner take all, ie. the farm and the pretty, tall and slim blonde. The match is now definitely on, and the prize offered were "accepted" by both players.
The adrenalin was churning and burning. As the coach, Kim suggested to Skip that he better win, so he could then offer the farm up to Monika (his partner) as the prize for a wife. If he lost, Skip would be in big trouble – but Skip was very confident. All set, and ready to go. We were set on the sidelines waiting for the match, and you could see both players really psyching up for the match, when suddenly both players had second thoughts about the prizes they are offering for the winner to take all. Well no matter, both agreed to play their best and the best man to win. Determined as they were, the match was quite even in terms of the points being scored. The final score was 5 points to Skip and 4 points to Steve. Skip WINS. Yes, if the prize was still available, Skip would have won the farm and keep his blonde partner. In the end we are convinced the motivation that Skip had to win was really his thoughts of "The farmer wants a wife". Monika is now still waiting for the farm.
You can view Skip’s fight (the 1st round) on this video clip. note: you can actually see Skip, even though at 52 years of age, is quite light on his feet as he pranced around the court stalking his opponent and finally winning the match.
I brought my video camera to tape our members at the 2009 Australian Taekwondo Nationals held at the Sleemans Sports Centre in Brisbane, Queensland. I was the primary videographer, of course, and because of this – not all members were recorded and not all footages were taken by me. Here is my favourite:
In order of performances, here is a list to all the youtube clips I’ve uploaded containing our ATA members:
