Pick of the Photos

Since the World Cup finished I’ve spent many hours pouring over the many thousands of images that I took sorting them and picking out the ones that stand out to me as being “special”.

What I’ve finally selected is only about 3% of the images taken. With the sport of Taekwon-do being so fast and so much happening, it shows how many images that I need to take to get some good ones!

I hope that you enjoy them.

Pick of the New Zealand photos…



Pick of the International photos…



My Favourites…



Cheers
Doug

Pick of the World Cup training photos

I’ve now had time to go through many of the pictures taken over the last few weeks and here are my favourites from the images taken during training in Reva del Garda.

I hope you enjoy them…



Soon, I’ll post my favourite New Zealand images from the World Cup tournament…

Cheers
Doug

For all the NZ World Cup Results

The website team back in NZ have done a superb job of summarising the results from the 2008 World Cup.

Visit the ITFNZ World Cup 2008 site for details

Official ITF World Cup 2008 results

Cheers
Doug

Final afternoon of competition

We didn’t pull any medals in the team sparring.

The junior girls only had three in the team, won two and drew one and had to forfeit.

The senior men one the first round and lost the second.

However we ended the competition with two grand champions – the highest individual medals for their category:

Don Leong and Sonja Robinson!!

And Carolina was first equal in her division which means that she didn’t receive an award but is a brilliant result!

The after party has begun and I’m the only party pooper so far so rushing to get this up for you before launching into it.

We catch a bus in the morning at 4am!! That’s FOUR AM – not looking forward to that one.

Photos from this morning



Photos from this afternoon (plus some to entertain you I hope)


Cheers for now - it's party time!
Doug

Day 4 of competition – morning update

We’re back at the hotel for lunch. The only events left are the team sparring which began about and hour prior to lunch and continue when we get back.

Firstly, correction from yesterday’s reports. I credited Don Leong with a Gold in sparring which was incorrect. He has won three medals; Specialty High Kick – Gold, Specialty Side Kick – Gold, Patterns – Gold.

In sparring this morning, Kane Baigent was first up and lost in a very large division which had to be split into two.

Courtney Meleisea won several rounds taking Bronze.

Melissa Timperley was beaten in her first round on the raised ring.

Kristie Leong won two rounds (I think) but was eliminated in the third.

Claire Kendal went through three rounds winning bronze.

Jeremy Hanna made the quarter final in a division of 53 and narrowly lost to a Slovenian who went on to win the Gold.

Here's a few pics to wet your appetite for the rest tonight...



Cheers
Doug

Day 3 of competition – summary

Fortunately I woke up early Sunday morning and had a spare ¾ hour to write a fuller report on yesterday’s competition.

It was another pretty good day for the kiwis although we didn’t have a lot on in the afternoon. I didn’t give my notebook to anyone to make notes today so this update is coming from my somewhat dodgy memory so please excuse me and let me know if there are any inaccuracies.

Hanna Kendal – sparring – Gold
Hanna made it through what I think was 4 rounds to win her event.

Mark and Luke – pre-arranged sparring – Gold (they performed 4 times to great crowd adulation)
They had the honour of being asked to perform again for the opening ceremony so Luke has decided not to spar. The flips, and landing the last one on his back on the floor hammer his back – not that he ever complains!

Don Leong - specialty side kick - Gold (previous post mentioning win in sparring was incorrect)
Don Leong – specialty high kick – Gold
This was the event that Don really wanted to win and he was the only competitor to successfully complete the high kick going straight to gold. He was pleased he didn’t have another round as he niggled an old injury on landing it.

Hayden Anderson– sparring – Silver
Hayden fought strongly through a number of rounds loosing in the finals to take the Silver.

Medal hopeful for specialty, Carl, had bitter luck. Last night he cleared the high jump in the second and final round but was disallowed because he raised his hands and yelled out “Yes” on landing. It didn’t look like a fair call on video but I guess this is what happens in sport. In his other specialty, the high kick, he hit the board but it only flipped about 30 degrees, not quite hitting it hard enough to score what was needed. He was naturally very disappointed.

I watched Afi Meleisea’s first round and he went out hard out completely dominating his opponent. Unfortunately I didn’t see his second round but he said afterwards that he ran out of steam in the last minute.

Richard Lavin made it to round two in his sparring event.

Deejay Thompson took a sidekick in the ribs and dislodged his lower right one in his first round. He said this prevented him from being able to give it his best and he was beaten in round one.

With Deejay and Luke out it Sunday’s NZ senior men’s team sparring is looking unlikely to happen.

Michael Davis sparred really well in his junior micro-weight division. He showed real courage, determination and speed. These guys are really fast. He won his first round. In the second round (I think it was) he took a reverse turning kick to the head 9 seconds before the finish which floored him. The doctor said he couldn’t continue although he had got up and was keen too. Under the rules it was then decided on whos fault it was and the corner judges concurred that his competitor had done nothing wrong so Michael lost.

Our two young blackbelts Robert Meleisea and Mitchell Leon both did us proud with gritty performances. They competed in the same division, although fortunately not drawing each other. Both won their first rounds with their Dad’s proudly seconding them. Robert lost round two.

For Mitchell’s results we need to explain the sparring format for the world Cup.
There is only one 3 minute round probably to keep the momentum up to get through the large numbers of competitors. Some divisions can have up to 70 competitors. If it is a draw there is a further one minute round. If that is drawn it goes to sudden death with the first point wins rule with corner judges standing and, when the referee stops, they show the point they saw. Three judges need to agree to win.

Finals have the traditional 2 x 2 x two minute rounds that we’re used to.
Mitchell dew his second round, drew the extra 1 minute round, in the sudden death playoff the first call was even and the second call saw his opponent win.

Avikesh Prasad lost in his first round.

I’ve probably missed some competitors – if so, I’m sorry about that.

Oh, and if some of the pictures I selected and posted last night are out of focus and not optimised I’m sorry about that. With about 1,500 pictures to select from last night I didn’t have time to look at each one full screen, so I made the selections from large thumbnail sized ones where some out-of-focus images look ok. I’ll go through them again in the next few days and refine the selection. I think it’s more important to get them up fast for you though rather than perfect which I’m sure you agree.

Cheers
Doug

Saturday photos update

Photos of Saturday morning’s NZ competition:



Photos of Mark and Luke’s Pre-arranged Sparring Win



Photos of Mark and Luke’s Opening Ceremony Demonstration



Photos of Saturday afternoon’s NZ competition



Photos of sparring, behind the scenes, people and the opening ceremony

Day 3 of competition – morning

We’re back at the hotel for lunch. Results so far today:

Hanna – sparring – Gold

Mark and Luke – pre-arranged sparring – Gold (they performed 4 times to great crowd adulation)
They have the honour of being asked to perform again tonight for the opening ceremony so Luke has decided not to spar.

Don Leong – specialty side kick – Gold (previously posted incorrectly that he had won sparring)

Don Leong – specialty high kick – Gold

Hayden – sparring – Silver

Medal hopeful for specialty, Carl, had bitter luck. Last night he cleared the high jump in the second and final round but was disallowed because he raised his hands and yelled out “Yes”. In the high kick, he hit the board but it didn’t quite flip right up so it scored 0.

Afi and Richard made it to round two in their sparring events.

DJ took a sidekick in the ribs and dislodged one.

Will update others tonight.

Day 2 of competition – plenty of NZ Gold!

We’ve just returned to our hotel after competition ended at just after 8pm. Some events, such as pre-arranged sparring (Mark and Luke), have been delayed until tomorrow.

Last night (after I left the venue) Phillipa Henry was awarded 3rd in patterns.

Today’s Gold Medals:

Melissa – patterns - Gold

Sonya – patterns - Gold

Jeremy – patterns - Gold

Carolina – patterns – Gold

Don – special technique side-kick – Gold

Sonya – sparring – Gold

Today’s other medals:

Mark Trotter – patterns – Silver

Carolina – sparring – Silver

Mera – sparring – Silver

Wayne Senior – sparring – Bronze

Mitchell got to last 5 in patterns

It has been a full on day full of excitement. Now… to get this wonderful news to you asap!

This morning’s photos below – yet to add a bit of polish when we get more time. This afternoon’s will come later tonight (Italy time) – say 9.30am NZ time.



This afternoon's pictures...


I'm off to bed!!
Cheers for now
Doug

PS: I tested my "dead" lens from yesterday and it worked today, only failing about half a dozen times so that was good news. An the the photography enquirer, my main lens is a Canon EF-S 18-55 f2.8 IS USM. Most of todays photos were taken with a Canon 85mm f1.8 prime lens.

Day 1 of Competition

Today was weigh in day for everyone and all the kiwis got through without any problems. It was slow though and a fair bit of frustration as some ueued for over 3 hours to get weighed in.

It was siesta over lunch until the tournament kicked off at just after 3pm with
patterns and junior special technique events.

The kiwis fared well with the following results:

Helen Caley – Gold – Patterns

Don Leong – Gold – Patterns

Hannah Kendall –
Silver - Special Technique (high kick)
Bronze – Patterns

Mera Horton – Bronze – Patterns

Both Hayden Anderson and Robery Meleisea got through to the medal round (last 5) in patterns before being knocked out.

Tyrone Seely and Paige Moki got through to their third round of patterns.

Kristy Leong and Michael Davis got through to their second round of patterns.

We left for dinner at this stage as a couple of kiwis were still left to compete so will catch up on how they got on in the morning.

After playing up for the last couple of days and lots of testing the main lens I use for Taekwon-do died on me just as the event got under way. It’s an expensive high grade lens - Murphy’s law! So I only have a slow 70-300 telephoto (and it is too dark in the venue to use effectively) and a fast 85mm prime (non-zoom) lens to use for the tournament. Hense the photos aren’t up to our usual standard.

Thursday morning - weigh in is underway

It's all action - lots of competitors are down at the venue for the weigh in.

Wednesday morning training (& photo shoot)

With the Tournament starting to get underway under way tomorrow afternoon I wanted to give my gear a thorough test out after I noticed my main lens has developed a new fault where it seems to work for a while then drops dead without warning when I go  to take a shot.  This seems to happen when the temperature rises.  Would be a curse for events like specialty where I only get one chance at the shot and can’t back away far enough to use my alternative, a long lens.

Anyway, I thought this morning I’d better give all my gear a good thrashing and get some more some practice with my telephoto lens.

The sun was full on and the air crystal clear with the haze gone so far today.

After a while I kidded some of the guys to work with me to get some “creative” shots of them working out.  It was fun and we’ll let you judge the results.

During the day I changed my main lens over to my older camera and it seems to be working fine on it so that was good to figure out.

Today lots of other teams have arrived and the town scene this afternoon has changed from the predominant 60’s-70’s retired couple tourists to groups of young Taekwon-do people.

We thought that other teams would be joining us at Hotel Liberty but none have which is a shame because it has been a bit lonely with only 11 of us since last Friday.  Christine Young arrived this afternoon so we’re now 12.  In retrospect, if they weren’t putting other teams in our hotel it would have been good to have the other kiwis here too.  Steve Pellow’s group have about a 1k walk to the venue, whereas we have only about 100m.  Our hotel appears to be the closest.

It’s now 6 pm and our guys have headed out for a walk around the town… they’re really hungry, most doing a starve now until weigh in for juniors in the morning and seniors in the afternoon.  Wandering around takes their minds off their hunger.  Most of our group are within 0-0.5kg of their target weight so are pretty well prepared. The hotel have been doing well on the food front with only a handful of us turning up over the last few days for some of the meals. Three meals a day are part of the package.

However, they’re really looking forward to a major food blitz tomorrow night. The restaurant staff will find it pretty odd!

The ITFNZ officials have all arrived (Kris Herbison and Mark Banicevich yesterday and Darren Ward today).

The waiting is getting hard and we’re ready and keen to get it all underway.

Today's fun and games...

The draw is out

This evening Jeremy Hanna saved the draws off the official website onto his laptop and people have been analysing their divisions.

Everyone here (our group) seems to be pretty happy with it.

Wednesday is pretty much all for the officials and coaches to be briefed and to prepare.

Juniors weigh in on Thursday morning and seniors in the afternoon.  There are some junior patterns on Thursday afternoon.

The real action starts on Friday with pretty much all individual patterns in the morning and specialty and pre-arranged in the afternoon.  Some significant sparring divisions featuring Mark Trotter in micro-weight and Carl van Roon in heavy-weight are also during the day.

Saturday features more sparring and Sunday finishes with sparring in the morning and team sparring following.

Not too long now and we’ll be into action!!

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The weather and food in Reva Del Garda

I’ve been asked about the weather and food and both have been fantastic.

The recent weather has been, according to the locals, “unseasonally warm” and is expected to last into the weekend. We have had clear skies and no wind. The temperature has been I guess between 12 degrees overnight to 20 during the day.  In the village, when the sun goes behind the western mountains at about 4pm is starts cooling off quite quickly.  But mostly it has been a t shirt and shorts with the addition of a sweatshirt in the early morning.  It heats up from 11am until 3pm.  It has been great as we were expecting highs of only about 15-17 degrees.

The food has been fantastic…. Typically Italian and a challenge for those aiming to lose weight.  In our hotel (which is 4 star) we have the following meals provided:

Buffet breakfast – choice of cereals, fruit, scrambled egg, bacon, toast, pastries, tea and coffee. After the [pathetic] breakfasts we experienced in Rome, this was a relief.

Lunch – 4 set courses! Salad appetiser, pasta entrée, pasta and meat main, fresh fruit or ice cream desert.

Dinner – 3 courses.  Choice of 4 entrees, 4 mains and 4 deserts!  Tasty and more than all bar Luke are used to eating.

The sad thing is that our tables are bereft of people as almost all the team are watching their weight and skipping courses or meals.  They’re hanging out for feasting after the weigh in on Thursday.  Some have yet to loose more weight.  Most of the team are now within 0-2.5 kgs of their target weights. 

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Day trip to Venice

See www.hanna.net.nz for details

Hotel Oasis rooftop training

This morning we joined up with the rest of the kiwis for training on the rooftop of Hotel Oasis. The view to the lake and mountains was great and it was relatively cool plus there were no insects to buzz you. Also the floor is tiled and quite nice on the feet compared with the concrete of the basket ball court where we’ve trained on other mornings.

Having everyone training together was great and at one point everyone stopped to watch Luke and Mark practice their prearranged routine (minus the flips) to a loud applause.

Check out the photos…


This afternoon a few of us are going on a boat trip across the lake to another small town and tomorrow some of us are going on a bus trip to Venice for the day tomorrow. The local travel agent has arranged it especially for us. They normally only run in the high season. Leaves at 8am and returns 8pm so it will be a full on day.

Have posted photos of the Lemone trip and also of the Reva Del Garda township on Doug's Photography Blog.

Cheers
Doug

Sunday at Lake Garda

Yesterday evening a fair few more kiwis arrived. They've spread us around three hotels so far - the idea being to mix it up with the other teams.

This afternoon the team went down to the "beach" at the lake front for a swim. The water is swimmable but pretty cold. They've had the standard 2 x trainings today. I went along to thisafternoon's training which is in a gym about a 15-20 minute walk away.

Here are some of the photos...



Cheers
Doug

Congratulations Mark and Carolina!

Mark Trotter and Carolina Dillen are engaged.

Mark spent weeks preparing and planning for this and popped the question in style at the Colosseum in Rome. He was greatly relieved when she said “Yes”!
Naturally they couldn’t wipe the grins off their faces for days – they’re just oozing “happy”.

We promised to keep “mum” until they had told their families.

If you’d like to send them a message, click on the comments link below this message and I’ll pass it on.

Watch my two blog sites

Just wanted to let you know that I'm now updating two blogger sites while in Italy:
This site - for coverage of the 2008 world cup
Doug Hanna's Photoblog - for personal photography stuff about the trip
So keep an eye out on both of them for the full story...
Cheers
Doug

Saturday morning training at Lake Garda

On Saturday morning (Saturday night NZ time) the team went out to train. We have access to a gymn in the late afternoon each day but for our morning training we have to find somewhere like a park. We walked around the waterfront and eventually found a concrete basketball court.

Here are the pics…