Niketa Wells - International Taekwon-do Federation of New Zealand

FEATURECarl van Roonamazing to see most of the finalists takeout their divisions!Saturday night was set-aside for “finalsnight”. This was the first time this kind ofevent has taken place in Taekwon-Do. Thefinals of the so-called “glamour events”were displayed. The arena was rearrangedand an elevated stage was installed. Thegrand masters had ringside seats andeveryone else watched on from thestands. The houselights were extinguishedand spotlights were placed on the mainstage. It felt like an international boxingevent, complete with the competitorsentering the ring to music. The eventwas recorded with television qualitycameras and compiled onto a DVD. NewZealand participated in two events duringthe finals night, with Miss Estelle Speirscompeting in sparring and Messrs MarkTrotter and Carl Van Roon competing inpre-arranged sparring. This night was madeeven sweeter when the kiwis won gold inboth categories!Sunday’s team events showed stiffcompetition for New Zealand. Despiteeverything, New Zealand managed to winsilver in senior female coloured belt teamsparring and in pre-junior black belt teamsparring. The senior female black belts alsoperformed spectacularly well and wonbronze in team patterns.Overall, our tiny country did fantasticallywell. New Zealand has been fiercecompetition in patterns for the better partof the last decade. This showed throughwith the strong performances from allpatterns competitors. New Zealand’sreputation as a world power in this fieldwas truly maintained. In fact, 44% of ourgold medals were from patterns, so wedid not disappoint.Where New Zealand really proveditself this year was in its sparring effort.Apart from a few stellar performances inprevious international competitions, NewZealand has been unable to dominatein the event. This year New Zealandearned 13 medals in sparring, with six ofthem being gold! Although unsurprising,considering the amount of training thatour competitors have been doing, this isa fantastic achievement and this figure willonly continue to improve.To the results then! New Zealand finishedsecond overall with 18 golds, 15 silvers and12 bronze medals.The best overall organisation title wentto the Irish Taekwon-Do Association andFetra, from Argentina, rounded out thetop three.Finishing second overall is an incredibleachievement for New Zealand,considering we had 54 competitors fromour organisation, while Fetra had 94competitors and the Irish Taekwon-DoAssociation had a whopping 142! This trulysets us in good stead with the worldwideITF community and is very promisingfor New Zealand’s next World Champscampaign to Spain!20TAEKWON-DO TALK MAGAZINE