Day 3 Results

Fought well today, but fell against the gold medallist 6-4 from Korea. Im not one to analyze my fight online so i wont, but I am definately looking forward to world cup which is my main target.
Kristy went down first fight in round 2 to Canada 12-6 (Thats on the news rules..first to twelve and the match ends) They had the new rules at this comp however chose to stick with only three referees.

Tomorrow is Amy Ruth and Dounia

Amy vs Canada
Dounia vs Kuwait
Ruth vs Taipei

2 Day Competition

No aussies are fighting today however Kristy and I did weigh in for our comp tomorrow. I weighed in at 62.9 this time for under 67 Olympic division. Kris and I are both on opposite sides of the draw so if all goes well we will meet in the final. For our first fights,I have got Korea and Kristy has Canada.

As the Koreans keep telling me "Te-Hamingoo" (not sure on spelling) but it means "fighting with power"or something like that. Its nice to know I have some Koreans cheering for me:) Wish me luck!

Korea Results DAY 1 = 1 Silver

1) Olympic Male Under 58kgs - SAFWAN SILVER

1st Place KOREA: YOU Young-dae
2nd Place AUSTRALIA: Safwan Khalil
3rd Place JAPAN : Min Ho Lee
3rd Place KAZAKHSTAN: Yestavletov Batyrbek

Safwan fought well all day. He beat:
China = 3-0
Brazil = 4-1
Japan = 3-1
Lost to Korea in the final: 3-0

2) Ryan Carneli also fought the same Korea guy first fight but unfortunately went down 9-2 in the third round.
3) Burak Hassan fought WTF light weight today. He was on top of his Syrian opponent for the first two rounds, however found it hard to find momentum in the third and lost his match 10-8.

2nd Korean International Champs

KOREAN OPEN
Where: Seoul
When: 4th - 9th September
Olympic Division: 57-67kgs
http://www.koreaopentkd.com

Aus Team Program:

6th September
Burak Hasan = WTF Light 67-72kgs
Ryan Carneli = Olympic -58kgs
Safwan Kahlil = Olympic -58kgs

8th September
Tina Morgan = Olympic 57-67kgs
Kristy Sparre = Olympic 57-67kgs

9th September
Dounia Larho = WTF 55-59kgs
Amy Ash = Olympic 67+kgs
Ruth Rowe = Olympic 67+kgs

2 Year Anniversary

This rainbow was seen in Korea recently. Everyone who passed was mesmorised by it and took out there phones to take pictures.

The Aussie team trained with the National Korean Taekwondo Team today in what would be regarded as their "AIS" facilities. Nothing was that different to any other session we have done besides the jumps, leaps and bounds.

I suprised myself....and the whole room..... when instead of jumping over a person (who was standing nice and tall) and landing on my feet and running through...I jumped over the Korean girl and almost face planted into the ground before miracuously pulling off the army roll of the year.....The sign at the door definately said "TAEKWONDO" not "GYMNASTICS";)Even though I was sooooo embarressed at the time, I am still giggling inside at the thought that I performed the most perfect mistake!:)

Today was my two year anniversary from when I fought at the Olympics in Athens. Memories always come to my mind about the event. Although it was a bad day back then, it is what it was and all I can do now is reflect and live my new journey towards Beijing. I'm enjoying all the moments, both good and bad...as they say "Everyone must go through a storm, to find a rainbow"

Country Training

This is literally what it looked like. Power point lines and endless rice paddocks.

Amy and I at the end of a gym session using the "rubber" machine.

We spent the last week in a small small small country town somewhere in Korea where only mosquitos and massive steroid looking spiders live. I was pretty much eaten alive by the mosquitos....(the pictures will come). The purpose of our visit to "the most boring place on earth" was to watch the Korean National Championships and focus on our own training ahead of Korean Open and World Cup. The Nationals here were alot different to any other competition I have seen before, ...literally all the athletes did was kick non stop for 2 minutes each round and the person who won was not the most intelligent fighter nor the most tactical, but was the person who kicked the most. ...It was strange to see a game of tkd being played that way but I guess thats how it is in Korea.

We trained every morning and afternoon and had a pool session to conclude. On the last day we fought against Woosuk University (2 fights each). Woosuk is now the number one university in Korea....and strangely it was the team that lived in this very boring city...I guess the only thing they can do is train and sleep;)

Our only adventure out of this small town was to the city about 1 hour away. The place we went to was kind of like a big Myers store, or Whitfords City, or Highpoint if your from Melbourne. Needless to say 3 hours in there was way to long ....thus all the girls bought a ton of makeup we dont need!

Thank god we are now back in Seoul. There are people and 7elevens stores that are close enough to walk to, we have supermarkets, computers and everything else needed to keep ourselves sane for another two weeks. I love training in Korea because of the intensity and the high skill level...but at times it does get quite boring. I can't wait until holiday time...when I can talk about all the cool places to go to. Korea is a marvel!~

"Moist" in Korea

Wondering why it's moist? The weather here is extremly hot and you can't walk 5 metres without breaking a sweat. Training isn't bearable and with my chest problem I have found it really hard to find air....(YOU THINK ITS EVERYWHERE BUT WHEN THERE ARE 100 PEOPLE IN A MEDIUM SIZED TRAINING HALL....ITS HARD TO FIND THE GOOD STUFF:))

It's "moist" as Ruth puts it, and its the word of the trip so far.

Boxing with the Phillapeano's

hmmmmmmm I got into some kind a punching neck fight yesterday with the Phillapean girl. She came at me the other day and punched me in the face.....needless to say I wasnt impressed and wasnt going to let her do it to me again....when she came in and started attacking my throat todayI landed one of my own.......I'm not mean enough to knock her out cold with my fist but I did for once fight back higher than normal. .....it felt great and the fact that I realised she can dish it but cant take it, made me stronger inside.

My hand was damaged from the day before but I couldnt feel anything with the huge glove I was wearing. Heres a pic of the damage I did. My thumb bent back in the clench against a heavy weight Thailand girl.