Major Results from the tournament were as follows:
Best Club - Dunedin
Best Men's Team - Otago University
Best Women's Team - Otago University
Tenets Award - Miss Natasha Kettngs, Dunedin
Best Overall Black Belt - Mr Glenn Goldsmith, Otago
Uni
Best Overall Red Belt - Ms Camilla Krebs, Otago Uni
& Mr Keji Kueh, Riccarton
Best Overall Blue Belt - Miss Natasha Kettings &
Mr Dean Jenkings, Dunedin
Best Overall Green Belt - Mr Jonathon Wong & Miss
Lucy Langston, Otago Uni
Best Overall Yellow Belt - Mr Nigel Patterson, Dunedin
Best Overall Green Belt - Mr Matthew Eden, Dunedin
(Full Results)
Mr Kris Herbison
Tournament Organiser
Otago University Taekwon-Do
South Island Regional Championships
2002
Miss Sarah Wilson, 3rd Gup
Otago University ITF Taekwon-Do
This year’s tournament, held at St Hilda’s
in Dunedin was extremely well run, and the spirit of
the weekend was excellent. It was commented on several
times that the tournament was, though still competitive,
one of the friendliest regional tournaments that we
have had so far. This is excellent to see; the emphasis
of the regional competitions is meant to be on participation
from all levels and fun, giving everybody a chance to
be involved in a tournament without the intense competitiveness
that goes with the National competition. This said,
the level of competition was very high, and the weekend
provided a glimpse into how the South Island Region
just keeps getting better.
Saturday was the first day of competition, forming
up at 9am sharp (almost). Introductions and welcomes
were made, and then straight into the patterns competition.
There were many competitors in all grades, except for
red belt – (The south seems to have a shortage
of red belts for some reason) and the level demonstrated
here was very high. The patterns competition was run
efficiently, and we managed to have this part of the
tournament finished well before lunch, leaving time
to get started on the sparring.
Lunch was somewhat rushed with our first day of competition
coinciding with the general election; those who had
not managed to cast a special vote ended up in various
polling booths around Dunedin, with onlookers wondering
what party this strange gang of people wearing martial
arts apparel was voting for.
After lunch was over Team Sparring was held. Dunedin
and Otago University had teams in both the women’s
and men’s events, Riccarton also entering a team
in the men’s event only. Otago University took
out the men’s event, and the Dunedin team won
the women’s. This was a fun event to both compete
in and watch.
Saturday afternoon also went very well, the sparring
bouts ran smoothly under the watchful eyes of the tournament
organisers. All preliminary bouts were completed, and
then we moved on to the Speciality Technique, a change
from the normal timetable of tournaments where the all
destructions are performed at the very end. This turned
out to be an excellent decision on the part of the organisers
– the tournament ran smoothly and the breaking
at the end of the first day meant that those spectators
who could not attend both days could get a little view
into this important part of Taekwon-Do. Both individual
and team events were carried out here, Otago University
winning both team events.
After competition finished for the first day the black
belts of the South Island took advantage of the rare
occasion of being able to meet all at once for a rather
lengthy meeting. The rest of the colour belts were sent
off to the Albert Arm’s for dinner – unfortunately
the Albert Arm’s apparently were not ready for
this influx of ravenous Taekwon-Doin, thus the expected
feast was not laid out in anticipation. However, with
some fast talking and convincing the restaurant made
room for us all, and we managed to have our dinner without
too much trouble in the end.
Most of the competitors and officials were worn out
by the end of the evening, and so retired to quieter
activities, including watching Jackie Chan for any tips
for sparring the next day, and passing out in bed as
soon as they got home. Other, more fool-hardy individuals
thought that drinking and/or dancing would be an ideal
way to optimise their performance the next day, and
spent the small hours having what fun Dunedin has to
offer on a Saturday night. For the record, everyone
was accounted for by noon the next day, though there
were concerns a certain important official was in jail
when he didn’t show up for the Sunday morning
competition.
Most were there bright and early however, though there
were some delays in getting started, which meant the
whole tournament ended up running a little overtime.
First up on the second day was the Team Pattern event,
with four teams entering. The Otago University team
took out the event, only just beating a very good Dunedin
team.
Sparring semi-finals and finals were then carried out;
as on Saturday the level of competition and spirit were
both excellent. At lunchtime we were all treated to
a demonstration of pre-arranged sparring and self-defence
from the Black Belts who recently graded in May. Mr.
Russell Stuart became the envy of many when he got the
chance to attack Mr. Herbison with a knife, and not
one, but two heavy sticks. Unfortunately for Mr. Stuart,
Mr. Herbison already knew exactly what to expect, and
so we all witnessed the amusing but painful sight of
somebody kneeling on somebody else’s head.
The final event of the tournament was the Power Test
for individuals and teams. The Otago women’s team
came first again, and the Riccarton team won the men’s
Power Test. This finished the tournament, and awards
were made soon after.
Dunedin Club won the best overall club trophy, with
a huge showing from their club. The tenets award went
to Natasha Kettings, an 11-year-old 3rd gup of the Dunedin
club, who well deserved the honour as anybody who saw
her performance in patterns, sparring and speciality
techniques, as well as the team events, will attest
to.
The weekend was run professionally and went pretty
much without a hitch, asides from the case of the missing
official. Congratulations and thanks must go to Mr.
Kris Herbison who masterminded the whole operation and
who worked very hard to ensure that the weekend went
well. Everyone who attended will agree this was a complete
success. Thanks must also go to Thu Thach and Carolyn
Faithful who gave much of their time to help with the
planning and the running of the tournament, while still
managing to compete and do extremely well. Finally a
huge ko mup sum neda to everyone else who helped, and
to all competitors, especially those who had to travel
so far. The tournament was a great success for all who
entered or just came to watch, and hopefully the next
time we all meet will be just as fun.
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