Niketa Wells - International Taekwon-do Federation of New Zealand

FEATURETHE 2012 WORLD CUP...BEHIND THE DECISIONSby Mr Gwyn Brown IV dan, Tournament Advisor Group1500-plus entrants. Four days ofcompetition in 10 rings with only 83umpires. Wow!This was my first World Cup. I considermyself to be a reasonably experiencedofficial, but outside of NZ, well, I was justthe same as everyone else...nervous!Travelling to Brighton with the NZ Teamwas fantastic. After 32 hours of flying,airport lounges, and prepared mircowavedfood it was a relief to finally arrive at theOld Ship Hotel, the team’s accommodationfor the tournament. Straight away thoughI had to transfer to the officials’ hotel,and not stay with the team before thecompetition started as planned. Was a bitdisappointed about that, but I guess thingshave to be done properly right from thebeginning. Oh well, the two km walk wasjust what the doctor ordered after all thatsitting around anyway (yes I could havetaken a taxi, but the kind receptionist atthe hotel told me it was just down theroad, which I fell for...Brighton 1, Brown 0 ).For some reason they stuck we officialswell away from the venue when we couldhave stayed next door, like the NZ teamdid. We (Master Rimmer and myself) putit down to luck or good management onthe team’s part. I like to think it was goodmanagement personally; luck’s never reallya part of the equation with Afi.After two days getting over the jet-lag andsightseeing, which included a day in London,as you do, the tournament for me finallyarrived early Wednesday morning with theofficials’ meeting. Master Katz took controlfrom the beginning and along with MasterOtterson laid out our four days for us veryclearly with his statement “are you readyfor the tsunami”?Our very own Mr Banicevich – Jury President, Center Referee and JudgeThe meeting went quickly and the NZofficials were all aware of what we hadto do. There was an enormous range ofofficials represented, from just about allthe countries involved, and at all levels ofexperience and attitude too.Thursday morning arrived just as quickly,and we were assigned our rings for theday. I was assigned to a patterns ring as ajudge, and because of the small numberof officials, we got the feeling we wouldbe worked pretty hard. There were to bejust seven officials per ring for patterns:five Judges, one Jury President, and onlyone official to tick names off, line them up,and keep them coming in to the ring onthe right side each time (no dedicated ringmarshals as such, even Masters were doingthis job). The sparring rings on the first dayhad one extra official...luxury!The first day I was in ring 5. Ring 5 wasassigned the largest divisions...yep...One designated pattern only forpreliminaries meant slightly less than 1.5minutes on the floor for our divisions.Master Katz allowed a generous twominutes to conduct each bout. Should be apiece of cake. I think he jinxed us by sayingwe would be fine so long as “Mr Murphy”left us alone. He didn’t. We were an hourlate in starting due to the computer systembreaking down three times and our drawnot arriving on time. It was looking morelike a 9 pm finish rather than the 7 pm onewe were told. Oh well, I’m at the WorldCup; could be worse!We finally got under way, due to thecombined efforts of all the ITF Ring Counciltrying to fix the system, and then themadness started.The two divisions in ring 5for the first day: Black BeltFemales, 18-35 years old,I dans. There were 103 ofthem. Black Belt Males, 18-35years old, I dans. There were120 something...(I lost trackof the numbers in the maledivision, but I know it was 120something).Guess who got asked to startthe ring marshalling? Wow,talk about busy. With theThe author and ITF Umpire, Mr Gwyn Browncompetitors doing about a minute on thefloor minus the walk on and the results,it didn’t leave much time to find the nextones, collect their ID cards, get the cards tothe Jury President and line them up at thering. I had them 4-deep lined up outsidethe ring, which was as much room as Ihad to work with...let’s not talk about thelanguage barrier and Argentine coacheswho seemed to think they were moreimportant than anyone else. I did meet anexcellent Norwegian coach though (stillcan’t pronounce his name), who spent a lotof time in ring 5, while not openly laughing,at least appreciating the work. Thanks mate!It was great to swap out for the afternoonwith one of the other judges and sit downto score patterns. Even though all patternsbelow Yul Gok were removed, I think Inow know the remainder in a way I neverthought possible! And sitting at the worldcup, scoring patterns, what a buzz!Despite the late start, we still managedto finish at 7 pm, getting faster and fasterwith getting the competitors in and out.7am start, 7 pm finish...long day, big tsunami.Day 2 was exactly the same, but different...same competitors, but sparring. I waschanged to ring 3 as I had asked MasterOtterson if I could referee. I figured if youdon’t ask, you don’t get, right? Ring 3 wasassigned the largest sparring divisions...yep...I dans again!22TAEKWON-DO TALK MAGAZINE