Thursday 31 December 2009

2009 World Champs NZ Medal Count


Complete list for the 2009 World Champs NZ Team

Official top country rankings - Overall

  • Argentina 17G 6S 13B
  • New Zealand 13G 10S 9B
  • Poland 8G 13S 10B
  • Germany 5G 3S 13B
  • Finland 3G 2S 3B
    New Zealand Country Ranking
  • Overall - 2nd
  • Seniors - 2nd
  • Juniors - 2nd

Best Overall (2)

  • Carl Van Roon - Best Overall Senior Male
  • Best Overall Junior Female Team

Unofficial Best Overall Tied (2)

  • From our analysis of the official website placings
  • Carolina Dillen, NZ and Maria Virginia Dionisi, Belgium - best overall senior females
  • Jeremy Hanna, NZ and Julio Carlos, USA - best overall junior males

Gold (13) / Senior (6) Junior (7)

  • Carl Van Roon - Senior Male Special Technique
  • Carolina Dillen - Senior Female 1st Dan Patterns
  • Chris Broughton - Senior Male 1st Dan Patterns
  • Luke Thompson - Senior Male Power
  • Senior Male Team Special Technique
  • Senior Female Team Special Technique
  • Aramai Tahau - Junior Male Special Technique
  • Jeremy Hanna - Junior Male 3rd Dan Patterns
  • Stuart Madden - Junior Male Power
  • Junior Male Team Power
  • Junior Female Team Patterns
  • Junior Female Team Power
  • Junior Female Team Special Technique

Silver (10) / Senior (6) Junior (4)

  • Carl Van Roon - Senior Male Heavyweight Sparring
  • Mark Trotter - Senior Male 4th Dan Patterns
  • Mark Trotter & Luke Thompson - Senior Pre-arranged Sparring
  • Matt Davey - Senior Male 2nd Dan Patterns
  • Senior Male Team Power
  • Senior Female Team Power
  • Jeremy Hanna - Junior Male Heavyweight Sparring
  • Kara Timmer - Junior Female Micro Weight
  • Kristy Leong - Junior Female Power
  • Shane Black - Junior Male Special Technique

Bronze (9) / Senior (4) Junior (5)

  • Amanda Cleland - Senior Female Power
  • Carolina Dillen - Senior Female Light Weight Sparring
  • Mark Trotter - Senior Male Microweight Sparring
  • Richard Lavin - Senior Male 3rd Dan Patterns
  • Anna Yates - Female Junior Power
  • Courtney Meleisea - Junior Female Heavy Weight Sparring
  • Melissa Timperley - Junior Female Special Technique
  • Phillipa Henry - Junior Female 1st Dan Patterns
  • Junior Male Team Special Technique

World Champs Pick of the Pix #3 Daiana Turnes



Daiana Turnes of Argentina has just beaten Kristine Fjeseth of Norway in the final for Junior Female Hyperweight sparring and is very excited and emotional.

Daiana is a good friend of several people in the NZ team so we were also excited to see her win gold.

Here are a few more images...






Left to right: Phillipa Henry, Courtney Meleisea, Daiana, Amy Reeder (who sparred Daiana in round 1).

And a favourite of mine... Daiana with Mark

Wednesday 23 December 2009

2006-2009 Nationals, World Cup and World Champs Photobook



[11/01/2010 Updated images of the photo book pages after corrections and tweaks]

There's nothing like having Christmas for a deadline. I've now completed the 2006-2009 NZ Taekwon-Do Photobook as well as the one focusing solely on the 2009 World Champs and will just be adding a few finishing touches over the next week before ordering the first test samples and beginning work on producing custom versions for all those that have ordered them with extra photos of family members. I've uploaded a screen shot of each double page spread for you to take a look at them.

Because we did so well at the Argentina World Champs the books are a lot larger than expected. I budgeted on 60 pages of world champs coverage but have ended up with 2 pages per medal won (32 medals x 2 = 64 pages) plus pages covering the build up training in Mar Del Plata, opening ceremonies, medal ceremonies etc adds a heap more pages. Versions of the book covering 2006-2009 with extra personalised pages are approaching 300 pages in size! All good stuff though.

View all

Email me to enquire or order on doug@hanna.net.nz

Monday 21 December 2009

2009 World Champs Photobook



11/01/2010 Updated with final images of the pages plus a second cut down "Tournament Edition"

The much awaited NZ Team World Champs 2009 Photobook has been completed at last. It has been more of a mission that I expected, mainly because we did so well! I have two pages coverage for every medal won... that totals 64 pages, let alone adding in a few images of training, other drama and action.

So... the book is much bigger than I planned... 280 pages instead of 160... but I think you may agree it's hard to decide what to cull out and I think it's better to keep the lot. Normally I need one double page spread to cover off the medal ceremony images; this year it is 8 pages!

I've also produced a cut down "Tournament Edition" which only includes the time in Mar Del Plata. A number of families have enquired about getting extra copies to give to family members, parents, grand parents etc and this edition is well suited to this.

Standard edition, covering from pre-trials training through the World Champs tournament in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, 290 pages, 10"x8" hard cover NZ$199 plus local courier...
Tournament edition, covering the time at the World Champs in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, 150 pages, 10" x 8" hard cover, premium paper, NZ$150 plus local courier...
Email me to enquire or order on doug@hanna.net.nz

Saturday 19 December 2009

World Champs Pick of the Pix #2 Slow Motion Impact

Canon EOS 7D, 85.0mm, 1/50s, f/5.6, ISO: 640

Another favourite image from the World Champs. My son Jeremy Hanna is sparring in Junior Male Team Sparring. I rush over from photographing another kiwi competing... I think at this stage we have 2-3 kiwis competing on different rings at the same stage... so I'm in a hurry and want to watch and photograph Jeremy's event. However, I've accidentally rotated the shutter speed dial on my camera dropping it from 1/160 second (enough to almost freeze sparring action) to 1/50th second which is way too slow for sparring. I don't discover the problem for about 15 minutes and shoot this fight and another with these settings.

However, it's a reasonably happy mistake as both Jeremy and I really like this image... it captures the intensity of the action and looks pretty cool.

The kiwi team is sparring USA in round 1. Jeremy wins, other results...
1 Aramai Tahau - Draw, 0-0
2 Ethan Parker - Loss, 0-1
3 Stuart Maden - Loss, 0-2
4 Jeremy Hanna - Win, 1-2
5 Michael Davis - Loss, 1-3
USA win the match

Friday 18 December 2009

World Champs Pick of the Pix #1

Canon 7D, 85.0mm, 1/80s, f/1.8, ISO: 320

One of my favourite images from the world champs.

From left to right: Haymar Tovar, Juan Goncalves and Tamaira Marquez (Haymar's Mum) from Venezuela.

PS: Thanks Juan for letting me know your names!

Sunday 6 December 2009

World Champs Day 1 - All of the Photos (Patterns)


Day 1 was such a big day and in patterns I tend to take an image per move so we ended up with and enormous 2,500 images for the day. That night I quickly chose about 20% of them to upload for you. Now I've weeded out a few rejects and uploaded all of them so you can see your patterns in detail or check out the medal winning ones. The maximum upload with Picasa Web Albums is 500 per album, hense breaking them down into 7 lots. If you click on the "View all" link below the slide show, then it will display all of the thumbnails and you can then select the image to start on if you just want to check out a particular person's pattern.

Image set 1 (330)...
Includes in order: general start of the day, Jamie Searle, Kristie Leong, Melissa Timberley, Courtney Meleisea, Shane Black, Richie Lavin, Michael Davis, Kristy, Courtney

Image set 2 (339)...
Includes in order: Courtney Meleisea, Jeremy Hanna, Richie Lavin, Jeremy (final)

Image set 3 (437)...
Included in order: Richie Lavin, Shane Black, Toni Moki, Shane, Richie, Richie, Alex Couling, Mark Trotter, Nikki Galpin (overhead kick), Toni

Image set 4 (419)...
Includes in order: Mark Trotter (v Germany), Carolina Dillen, Randoms, Mark, Carolina, Alex, Carolina, Ethan Parker, Mark, Carolina

Image set 5 (379)...
Includes in order: Mark Trotter (final vs Mr Suska), Carolina, Aramai Tahau, Carolina (final), Sandi Galpin, Paige Moki, Randoms, Chris Broughton, Phillipa Henry

Image set 6 (375)...
Includes in order: Chris Broughton, Kara Timer, Randoms, Chris, Phillipa, Kara, Matthew, Davey, Phillipa, Chris, Phillipa

Image set 7 (291)...
Includes in order: Senior Female Team Pattern, Chris Broughton (final), Junior Male Team Pattern, Junior Female Team Pattern, Matt, Aramai Tahau (specialty), Shane Black (specialty), Various, Michael and Simon Davis (junior pre-arranged), Junior girls, Aramai (specialty, winning gold)

Saturday 5 December 2009

NZ Team's Success at World Champs in the news [updated 26/12/09]

Updated 26/12/09 with TV3 Sports News Video

25/12/09 TV3 Sports News Video

Tauranga newspaper article

North Shore Times - Thursday 10th December 2009


Updated 5/12/09 with TVNZ Video for overseas viewers plus pictures of the article in today's NZ Herald.

Nick Lorantos organised press releases to go to the media and Sparc etc to help boost the profile of ITFNZ's sport and success at the World Champs in the news. It was picked up by TVNZ, The Herald and MSN and TVNZ and the NZ Herald were also at the airport to catch team members returning on Friday 4th December.

Here are the links and the copy from the articles:

NZ Herald 5/12/09: Taekwon-Do Team Bring Pile of Medals




It appears the article hasn't made it to their website yet but I've taken photos of it (after Jan had cut it out and put it on the fridge!)

-------------------------------- end -------------------------------

TV One Sports News: Friday 4th December 6-7pm news slot
Waiting for TVNZ to publish it on their website but we got 10-15 seconds of the team arriving in Auckland (well, tour group B members of the team) this morning. Brief interview with Courtney Meleisea.

The TVNZ coverage on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UIzF82kTlg

-------------------------------- end -------------------------------

TVNZ: More Gold for NZ at Taekwon-Do Champs
http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/more-gold-nz-taekwon-do-champs-3200369

New Zealand has added three golds to its medal haul making it No 2 on the medal table of 60 countries at the Taekwon-Do Federation World Championships in Argentina.

With one day of competition to go, Argentina leads the medal hunt with New Zealand second, followed by Germany.

Taekwon-Do, which has its origins in Korea, is the most popular form of martial arts in the world with an estimated 180 million practitioners of the sport.

The New Zealand team now has eight Golds, six Silver and eight Bronze medals.

Team star Carl van Roon, of Auckland, won his Gold medal in the Senior Male Speciality division, making him fourth time consecutive World Champion in the division, while Luke Thompson, also of Auckland, clinched a Gold, making him second-time consecutive World Champion in the Senior Male Individual Power division.

The last Gold medal was won by Stuart Maden, of Wellington, in the Junior Male Power competition.

Silver medals come from the SPARC-sponsored Auckland -based athletes Mark Trotter and Luke Thompson in the Senior Male Pre-arranged Sparring competition and Jeremy Hannah, of Auckland, in the Junior Male Heavyweight Sparring Division.

The third Silver was taken out by Kristy Leong in the Junior Female Power division while the last of the Silver Medals was won by SPARC-sponsored Carl van Roon in the Senior Male Heavyweight Sparring competition.

Bronze medals were won by Aucklanders Carolina Dillen in the Senior Female Lightweight Sparring Division and Courtney Meleisea in the Junior Female Heavyweight Sparring Division.

Mark Trotter won a Bronze medal in the Senior Male Micro Weight Sparring division and Amanda Clealand secured a Bronze in her Senior Female Power division. Anna Yates, of Palmerston North, won her bronze medal in the Junior Female Power division.

The four-day event has drawn over 800 competitors with large teams from the United States, England, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Germany and Poland.
-------------------------------- end -------------------------------

Yahoo Xtra Sport: NZ Taekwondo team 2nd at World Champs
from Newstalk ZB
http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/6533408/nz-taekwondo-team-2nd-world-champs

he New Zealand team has finished the Taekwondo World Championships runner up to hosts Argentina with 13 Gold medals, eight Silver and nine Bronze medals.

The result marks an improvement from third in 2007.

Chairman of the ITF Taekwondo World Championships 2011, Nick Lourantos says it is the best performance ever by a New Zealand team.

Lourantos says now everyone is buzzing about how well we will do on home turf in 2011 when New Zealand hosts the World Championships in Wellington.

-------------------------------- end -------------------------------

NZ Herald: Taekwondo: More NZ taekwondo golds

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10612458
New Zealand has picked up three more golds from the world taekwondo championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

With one day of competition to go, Argentina leads the medal hunt with New Zealand second and Germany third. More than 60 countries are contesting the four-day event with large teams from the United States, England, New Zealand Canada, Australia, Argentina, Germany and Poland.

The New Zealand team now has eight golds, six silver and eight bronze medals.

Aucklander Carl van Roon won gold in the senior men's speciality division, while Luke Thompson, also of Auckland, took gold in the senior men's individual power division.

The third gold went to Wellingtonian Stuart Maden in the junior men's power competition.

Silver medals went to Mark Trotter and Thompson in the senior men's prearranged sparring competition and Jeremy Hannah (Auckland) in the junior men's heavyweight sparring division.

Kristy Leong (junior women's power division) and van Roon (senior men's heavyweight sparring) also took silver.

Bronzes went to Aucklanders Carolina Dillen (senior women's lightweight sparring) and Courtney Meleisea (junior women's heavyweight sparring).

Trotter won bronze in the senior men's micro weight sparring, as did Amanda Clealand (senior women's power division) and Palmerston North's Anna Yates (junior women's power division).
- NZPA

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Friday 4 December 2009

Group 2 Arrival in Auckland [updated]

On the front left is Mrs Van Roon wearing Carl's medals and holding his best overall cup. Carl is still in South America.

We were greeted by family and friends plus TV ONE cameras and the press. Master Bhana and other TKD enthusiasts were also there to welcome our contingent of the team home.

We were delayed about an hour, arriving at 8.35am instead of scheduled 7.40am which meant a few of those with connecting flights were scrambling to get through to the domestic terminal in time for the flights to Tauranga, Wellington, Palmerston North and the like. Only one hour late wasn't too bad though compared with the guys flying home on Wednesday who had a 5 hour delay.

You can see from the photos that there are were a lot of the team returning separately.

Mark and Carolina are off to Peru to visit family and are back in late January. Carl, Richy and Amanda are all touring South America for the next month or so. There's another group of kiwis staying on and returning on next Wednesday's flight (I think there are direct flights from BA to Auckland on Wednesdays and Fridays). Mean time, many of them are staying in a Youth Hostel like place a few blocks from our luxury Marriott Plaza Hotel. We wish you all to have a lot of fun, safe travels and we look forward to seeing you back in NZ.

Here's a few more photos of our arrival (10)...

Thursday 3 December 2009

NZ Team - Day 4 Commentary [final with full details]

Junior Male Team discussing their winning performance in power. Stu has his foot raised to help prevent bruising after hurting it on the turning kick (which he got).

Day 4 was messy. We were tired out, specialty and power teams went through in a stop / start manner with very long waits to see if there would be playoffs and our ranking as teams also performed their team sparring competitions and we had some individual finals to complete as well.

Special thanks to the team members that helped out; Helen Caley for keeping some written notes, Analiese K, Kara and others who spotted from the stand telling me on the RTs when our team members stepped up or onto their rings / events and for directing me left, right, turn around, "looks like the boys are going on for specialty... hold it, false alarm" etc. It's a bit like a farmer directing a sheep dog!

At one stage we had our teams performing at the same time, for example Junior Female Team Sparring on #5, Junior Male Team Sparring on #1 and Senior Male Team Sparring on #4.Choosing which to cover was really hard and I tried to achieve some coverage of each. So some of the boys sparring photos are mixed up with the girls as they are sorted on the image date/time and as one match stopped I swung around 180 degrees and kept shooting the other. Makes it interesting.

We've now been through over 2,000 images from Sunday building up the list of results during the day from tghe images, our medal list, and our rough hand-written notes.


Junior Female Team Sparring
NZ vs Poland
Paige Moki - Loss, 0-1
Courtney Meleisea - Draw, 0-1
Amy Reeder - Win, 1-1
Kristy Leong - Loss, 1-2
Melissa Timperley - Win, 2-2
Match point...
Courtney - Draw, Sudden Death, Loss
Poland win the match


Senior Mens Team Sparring
NZ vs Uruguay
Richard Lavin - Win, 1-0
Kane Baigent - Win, 2-0
Clint King - Win, 3-0
NZ wing the match

NZ vs Poland
Richard Lavin - Win, 1-0
Clint King - Loss, 1-1
Chris Broughton - Loss, 1-2
Kane Baigent - Loss, 1-3
Poland win the match


Junior Male Team Sparring
NZ vs USA
Aramai Tahau - Draw, 0-0
Ethan Parker - Loss, 0-1
Stuart Maden - Loss, 0-2
Jeremy Hanna - Win, 1-2
Michael Davis - Loss, 1-3
USA win the match

[I previously said Junior boys "NZ vs Romania - Match Win to Romania" - this was an error. They only sparred USA]


Junior Male Special Technique
Shane Black - Flying High Kick - Touched but no points. (He had his arm and shoulder bound to his body.)
Aramai Tahau - Flying Turning Kick - got it, 2 points
Michael Davis - Flying Reverse Turning Kick - missed, 0 points
Jeremy Hanna - Flying Mid-air Kick - had the height but not the accuracy, 0 points
Stuart Madden - Overhead Kick - cleared the tapes, broke the board but tripped over the board holders and fell, 0 points

As a result we were still tied for first place with Germany and USA.

Later in the playoff the tiebraker was a mid-air kick set at 2.3 metres which is Senior Male height. Germany hit. USA hit but zero points. NZ put up Shane who had the height but kicked to the side.
Gold to Germany

Tiebraker for silver. USA hit the turning kick for 2 points. Aramai hit it but but it wasn't strong enought to get him points.
Silver to USA.
BRONZE medal to NZ.


Senior Female Team Sparring
NZ vs Romania - Match Win by Default (Romania only had three people and the rules require a minimum of 5)
NZ Versus Argentina
Alisa Parker - Loss
Carolina Dillen - Win
Sandi Galpin - Loss
Amanda Cleland - Loss
Win to Argentina.


Junior Male Team Power
We held off completing team power so that we knew what we had to beat. With our individuals, both Shane and Stu had only managed to crack the back board, so this became our sacrificial kick and we shuffled our kicks to our strongest positions to make 4 breaks. However, Ireland broke all 5 and so the game plan changed. Everyone was under huge pressure as we needed a clean run to get gold. Every time someone made a break, the pressure on the next person increased.

Ethan Parker - Punch, break
Hamish Duncan - Knifehand, smashed it (he had missed this in individual)
Shane Black - Sidekick, break (he had his arm and shoulder bound to his body from previous day's injury)
Pressure rising...
Stu Midden - Turning kick, break
Pressure at it's height... Jem you have to get this...
Jeremy Hanna - Reverse turning kick, break

Playoff between NZ and Ireland for Gold.
4 x board sidekick.
Ireland break but disqualified on a technicality (we think for taking three steps).
Stuard Madden gets the break and three blue flags go up.
GOLD to NZ


Junior Female Team Special Technique
Kara Timmer - High Kick, 2 points
Amy Reeder - Turning Kick, got it but only 1 point awarded
Melissa Timperley - Overhead Kick, got it, 2 points
GOLD


Junior Female Team Power
Annaliese Burr - Knifehand, 2 points
Anna Yates - Sidekick, 4 points
Kristy Leong - Turning kick, 4 points
10 out of 10
GOLD


Senior Male Team Power
Carl Van Roon - Punch, no break
Kane Baigent - Knifehand, break
Luke Thompson - Sidekick, break
Kris Herbison - Turning kick, break
Clint King - Reverse turning kick, no-break

We were tied for gold with Argentina but they protested one of their breaks, won the protest and we drooped to a playoff for three teams for silver.
Playoff 3 teams for silver.
SILVER to NZ


Senior Male Team Special Technique
Richard Lavin - High kick, missed, 0 points
Ross Black - Turning kick, missed, 0 points
Carl Van Roon - Reverse turning kick, go it, 1 point (Later protested because the machine worked in one direction but no thte other, 2 points awarded.)
Clint King - Midair kick, missed, 0 points
Before Kane went, we only had one point and the leaders had two so we needed the overhead kick. Pressure.
Kane Baigent - Overhead kick, success, 2 points.
GOLD to NZ


Special Awards
Carl Van Roon - Best Overall Senior Male
- Senior Male Special Technique GOLD
- Senior Male Heavyweight Sparring SILVER

Best Junior Female Team
- Patterns GOLD
- Power GOLD
- Special Technique GOLD

Best Junior Male and Best Senior Female
Under ITF rules, no award given if the top placing is tied, there neads to be a clear winner.

We've researched the results on the official website and our analysis shows that:

Senior Female Best Overall Tied
Carolina Dillen, NZ and Maria Virginia Dionisi, Belgium - drew top place
Carolina Dillen - 1st Dan Patterns GOLD, Lightweight Sparring SILVER
Maria Virginia Dionisi - 4th Dan Patterns GOLD, Microweight sparring BRONZE

Junior Male Best Overall Tied
Jeremy Hanna, NZ and Julio Carlos, USA - drew top place
Jeremy Hanna - 3rd Dan Patterns GOLD, Heavyweight Sparring SILVER
Julio Carols - 3rd Dan Patterns SILVER (vs Jeremy in Final), Lightweight Sparring GOLD

Strolling Around Buenos Aires



Lara Granada Lanús had kindly offered to give us a peronalised tour of some of the sites around Buenos Aires at 9am on Wednesday morning. That was real commitment after she went out clubbing with some of the NZ Team members after our Tango Show we went to the night before and they only got to bed in the early hours of the morning. She kindly took Master McPhail, Master Davidson and myself to the parliament grounds then the port before we found a nice cafe and settled in for a long coffee together.

Thanks Lara, you were a very dedicated host!

Here's a few pics taken by Lara and myself (49)...

The Team in Buenos Aires



Here are a few of my own personal pics from Monday and Tuesday...

Monday (76)...
Tuesady (37)...

NZ Team - Day 4 Photos - Detailed Set 5 (Team Power, Sparring Finals, Special, Dancers, Medals)



In these photos, the final lot for Day 4 you will find:
NZ Senior Male Team Power
Some Senior Male Team Sparring - Poland vs Norway, Finals of Argentina and Poland
NZ Female Team Power
NZ Team Special Technique
Dancing Girls
Last Medal Awards including Special Best Overall Awards

Images (319)..
Today is our last day in Argentina. We depart about 2am tomorrow morning and arrive in Auckland Airport at 7.40am Friday.
Cheers
Doug

Wednesday 2 December 2009

NZ Team - Day 4 Photos - Detailed Set 4 (Senior Female Team Sparring)



Senior Female Team Sparring plus coverage of the final between Poland and Argentina.

Images (188)...

Some Interesting Web Stats for the World Champs



www.tkdaction.com Posts in November and December - to date - 50
Number of typos and spelling mistakes - no idea
Twitter updates - so far 204
ITFNZ Message Book posts - 575
Facebook posts by team members and comments from supporters back home - countless

www.tkdaction.com web stats:
Top day (Monday in Argentina) Visits - 1185, Unique Visitors - 615

Over the last month (1 Nov to 1 Dec):
8,867 Visits
3,061 Absolute Unique Visitors
17,062 Pageviews
1.92 Average Pageviews
00:03:49 Time on Site
58.45% Bounce Rate (Only visited the home page)
28.15% New Visits

Photos taken (number of photos is not a reflection of a quality job - the number of ace ones is the real measure!)
Day 1 - 2,675
Day 2 - @1,700 (can't tell without firing up my backup drive as I had to archive off unused ones for disk space)
Day 3 - 1,453
Day 4 - 2,904

Tournament photos published - up to Day 4 part 3 - more to come - 2,221.
Volume of photos 40 Gigabytes after lots of archiving to my portable hard drives and then deleting off my laptop.
Times asked to leave the floor - 3. Permissions given my Master Merano - 1 (that's all I needed). Times I left the floor on instruction - 1.
Kilometers walked in the venue - heaps.
Bathroom stops - not enough.
Lunches provided by parents - 3. Thanks a lot!!
Water bottle refills pinched from the 2011 promotions team - 2-3 per day.
Battery recharges on the day on the 2011 stand - 2.
Number of times unique Canon 7D charger lost - 1. Nbr times returned personally by the 2011 team - 1. Amazing effort to hand deliver it to our hotel after the equipment hire people dismantled and relocated their stand to the Congress, including my Canon 7D battery charger (irreplaceable in a hurry).
Hours processing images and posting updates - no idea.
Earliest night to bed, 12.30am (latest night, typically 1.45am, up at 5.30-6.00am)
Longest sleep-in 8.00am on Friday

Enough skiting. It's mid day and I'm off for a walking tour with the rest of the team.
Cheers,
Doug

NZ Team - Day 4 Photos - Detailed Set 3

Kane Baigent immediately after a successful specialty overhead kick

It is 11.20am - been up processing images and updating commentaries since 6.30am - had breakfast but now in desperate need of a real coffee.

Here's the next lot covering some medal awards, Senior Female and Male and Junior Male Special Technique.

Images (113)...
Hopefully more soon...

NZ Team - Day 4 Photos - Detailed Set 1 & 2

Jeremy Hanna wins against USA in Junior Male Team Sparring

I've selected a lot more images than normal, and are about 1/3rd away through day 4. With more images selected the quality standard is lower but you get to see more of the action :-)

Image set 1: NZ Team Sparring and Junior Female Power (252)...
Image set 2: General images and NZ Senior Male Team Sparring (112)...
More to come...

Monday 30 November 2009

NZ Team Day 4 - Results Summary

Junior Female Team Power Gold
Junior Male Team Power Gold
Senior Female Team Special Technique Gold
Junior Female Team Special Technique Gold
Senior Male Team Special Technique Gold
Senior Male Team Power Silver
Senior Female Team Power Silver
Junior Male Team Special Technique Bronze

Best Overall Senior Male - Carl van Roon
Best Overall Junior Female Team

World Champs Day 4 Photos - 1st Draft



Job done, crawling off to bed. Commentary and medal list update will have to wait to tomorrow night. It's 12.30pm and the alarm goes off at 4.30am - yuk!

Quick selection of images from today (303)...
G'night.
Cheers,
Doug

World Champs Day 3 - Rest of the Photos



It is 7.15am Sunday morning in Mar Del Plata. The team have gone off in the bus and I've stayed behind at the hotel to upload some more images for you.

I haven't had time to sort through all of Day 3's photos but have uploaded the remaining 1500 or so in batches so you can at least look at them unedited. There's lots of repetition in there which will be eliminated, along with the bad shots, once I have more time available.

So, go the the following link and look for the galleries marked:

2009-11-28- WC MDP Day 3 All Pt# where #=1 to 6. This will put into the PicasaWeb site where you can select a gallery then click on the [Slide Show] button at the top.

http://picasaweb.google.com/doughanna.itfnzwc09

I'm going to leave the albums uploading and grab a taxi. The internet link in the hotel here is pretty unreliable and right now is running really slow so if it craps out, my notebook will fall off the internet and the upload will stop until I come back and reboot their internet router again. (I have to do this each day and sometimes several times a day... have given up asking them to do it and just dive in and do it myself).

Today is mostly team sparring, team specialty and team power.

I'm off to grab a taxi to the venue now.

Chow.
Doug

Sunday 29 November 2009

NZ Team - Day 3 Commentary [updated]



Special thanks to Sandi Galpin and others for compiling this during the day, for twittering the results as they happened (except when I took the phone for Jem to call his Mum about his silver medal which took him an hour and a half or so to get a break to do)

Senior Male Power
Luke Thompson Gold Medal (2x world champ)

Senior Female Power
Amanda Cleland Bronze Medal

Male Junior Power
Stuart Madden Gold Medal
Must mention that Shane Black, with bound up right arm and shoulder competed attempting the punch with his left hand (failed) and knife hand punch with his left hand (success). He missed one of the kicks I think, landing 4th place.

Female Junior Power
Kristy Leong Silver Medal
Anna Yates Bronze Medal

Junior Female Light weight Sparring
Annaliese Burr v Poland = Loss

Junior Girls Middle weight Sparring
Phillipa Henry v Spain = Loss
Mellisa Timperly v Slovenia = Loss

Junior Female Hyper weight Sparring
Kristy Leong v Norway = Loss
Amy Reeder v Argentina = Loss

Junior Boys Light weight Sparring
Mitchell Craig v Ireland = Win
Mitchell Craig v Germany = Loss
Michael Davis v Ireland = Loss

Junior Male Middle Weight
Aramai Tahau v USA = Win
Ethan Parker v Greece = Win
Aramai v Ethan = Win to Ethan [daft draw has them meet in their second round]
Ethan v Paraguay = Loss

Junior Boys Heavy weight Sparring
Jeremy Hanna v Argentina = Win
Jeremy Hanna v USA = Win
Jeremy Hanna v England = Win
Jeremy Hanna v Poland = Win
Jeremy Hanna v Solvenia = Loss
Jeremy Wins Silver Medal
[Highest medal ever for NZ Junior Male Sparring at World Champs]

Junior Male Hyper weight Sparring
Hamish Duncan v Ireland = Win
Hamish Duncan v Argentina = Loss

Shane Black v Germany = Loss

Senior Male Micro weight
Mark Trotter v USA = Draw then Win
Mark Trotter v Jamacia = Win [World Cup Champion 2008]
Mark Trotter v Russia = Loss
Mark Wins Bronze medal
[His first w/champs sparring medal since he started competing in the World Champs in 2000]

Senior Male Light weight Sparring
Chris Broughton v Finland = Win
Chris Broughton v Netherlands = Loss

Senior Male Middle Weight Sparring
Kane Bagient v Venezuela = Loss

Senior Male Heavy weight Sparring
Carl Van Roon v Austria = Win
Carl Van Roon v Columbia = Win
Carl Van Roon v Slovenia = Win [European Champion, beat 2005 World Champion (Daniel from Poland) in previous round]
Carl Van Roon v Brazil = Win [World Champion 2007]
Carl Van Roon v Argentina = Loss [Silver medalist 2007]
Carl Wins Silver Medal

Senior Female Middle Weight Sparring
Alyssa Parker v Finland = Loss

Senior Female Heavy Weight Sparring
Nikki Galpin v Argentina = Loss

Senior Female Hyper Weight Sparring
Amanda Cleland v Finland = Loss

NZ Team - Day 3 Photos - 2nd Lot



Melissa, Hamish Duncan rounds 1 and 2, Jeremy rounds 3 and 4 (159)...

NZ Team - Day 3 Photos - 1st Lot

I know people are waiting for photos so I'm going to upload them in lots.



Here's the first lot including people prior to competition today, Jeremy sparring, Phillipa sparring, interrupted by Luke power, interrupted by Jeremy sparring [rounds 1 and 2] - yes sorry but my boy comes first when he's competing :-)

Images (169)...

Saturday 28 November 2009

NZ Team - Day 2 Photos

Courtney Meleisea vs Spain

Day 2 Photos, Part 1 (233)...
Day 2 Photos, Part 2 (346)...
Day 2 Photos, Part 2b (39)... Medal ceremony (more ceremony to come tomorrow) and start of opening ceremony...
Day 2 Photos, Part 3 (170)...
It's 1.30am and I'm off to bed. We're on the bus at 7.15am in the morning.
G'night from Mar Del Plata.
Cheers,
Doug

NZ Team - Day 2 Commentary


A big thanks to Kristy for doing all of today's Twitter updates, Nikki Galpin for taking these notes and Estee for speed typing them up for us all...

In order of the day...

Junior Boys Micro weight
Jamie Searle v Slovenia = Loss
Simon Davis v Puerto Rico = Loss

Junior Girls Micro weight
Kara Timmer v Argentina = Win
Kara Timmer v Brazil = Win
Kara Timmer v USA = Loss
Kara wins Silver Medal

Junior Girls Heavey weight
Analiese Kerkvliett v Norway = Win
Analiese Kerkvliett v Canada = Loss

Courtney Meleisea v Spain = Win
Courtney Meleisea v England = Win
Courtney Meleisea v Argentina = Loss
Courtney Wins Bronze medal

Paige Moki v England = Loss

Senior Girls Micro weight
Estee Speirs v Argentina = Loss

Senior Girls Light weight
Carolina Dillen v Paraguay = Win
Carolina Dillen v Norway = Win
Carolina Dillen v Scotland (4 times? world champ) = Loss
Carolina Wins Bronze Medal
Final is tomorrow - Scotland vs Argentina

Senior Girls Heavy Weight
Nikki Galpin v Sweden = Win

Senior Male Specialty Technique
Carl Van Roon = 7 out of 8 points
Gold Medal

Senior Pre-Arranged Sparring
Mark & Luke v Puerto Rico = Win
Mark & Luke v Brasil = Win
Mark & Luke v Argentina = Loss
Mark & Luke win Silver Medal

NZ Team - Day 2 Photos - 1st Draft



I know you guys back home are just hanging out for some photos from today and I've gone through the first lot from one camera and thought I'd temporarily upload what I've selected so far and then re-do it when I've finished.

Here you go (499)...More soon...

Some Interesting Web Stats on Day 1 World Champs



www.tkdaction.com
Visits - 860
Unique Visitors - 418

Twitter updates - so far 133 (not easy to count just yesterdays - too many!)

Facebook posts by team members and comments from supporters back home - countless

Photos taken Day 1 - 3,400 (The most I've ever taken in one day by like 200%)
Photos published - 806 (more to come at some stage - this was a fast/rough selection)
Volume of photos 24 Gigabytes
Amount of space remaining on camera memory cards at end of day - 700 photos only.

Times thrown out of the centre stage by security - 1 (then Steve Pellow went and spoke to Master Merano who gave Doug and two other team photographers (my friend Master Judit from Poland and another female photographer from Poland) the only permission to be in the centre stage - phew!)

NZ Team - Day 1 Photos, Part 2 of 2

A happy World Champion, Carolina Dillen

It is now Friday morning here. The ITF Congress is on this morning and we don't get picked up by the bus until 12.15pm so it is a rest for most of the team... very little action up at breakfast at 8am this morning. Saw only 4 kiwis! Well deserved sleep in I reckon. The opening ceremony is tonight.

Here's the second set of photos. Unfortunately I got very few of the specialty because there was so much on I could not wait around there for our people to compete and our spotters in the grandstand would call me on the walkie talkie when one of our team members stepped up to do their jump or kick but mostly I could not move to ring 7 in time to capture them in action. Have some of Melissa and Shane only.

More photos (294)...

Friday 27 November 2009

NZ Team - Day 1 Photos, Part 1 of 2

It's midnight and I'm absolutely knackered. I've quickly selected 500 of the first 2,500 images from the day. I think there may be another few hundred on the remaining 2 cards I haven't downloaded yet but they'll have to wait for the morning.

I've got these uploading for you all (499)...

It feels very good... we reckon this is probably the best day in the history of NZ Taekwon-Do in terms of medal count.
G'night,
Cheers
Doug

NZ Team - Day 1 Commentary

First NZ Gold medal of the tournament is awarded to Jeremy Hanna - Junior male 3rd dan patterns.

Thanks to David Parker for taking these notes and Kara and Estee for speed typing them up....

In order of the day...

Jamie Searle 1st Dan Patterns Junior Boys v Canada = loss

Michael Davis 1st Dan Patterns Junior Boys v Canada = Loss

Shane Black 1st Dan Patterns Junior Boys v England = Win
Shane Black 1st Dan Patterns Junior Boys v Ireland = Win
Shane Black 1st Dan Patterns Junior Boys v Argentina = Draw, Draw, Loss

Kara Timmer 1st Dan Junior Girls Patterns v Solvenia = Win
Kara Timmer 1st Dan Junior Girls Patterns v Spain = Loss

Paige Moki 1st Dan Junior Female Patterns v Brazil = Loss

Phillipa Henry 1st Dan Junior Girls Patterns v Spain = Win
Phillipa Henry 1st Dan Junior Girls Patterns v Spain = Win
Phillipa Henry 1st Dan Junior Girls Patterns v Poland = Win
Phillipa Henry 1st Dan Junior Girls Patterns v Canada = Loss
Pip Wins Bronze Medal

Ethan Parker 2nd Dan Junior Boys Patterns v USA = Loss

Aramai Tahau 2nd Dan Junior Boys Patterns v USA = Loss

Kristy Leong 2nd Dan Junior Girls v Germany = Win
Kristy Leong 2nd Dan Junior Girls v Finland = Loss

Melissa Timperley 2nd Dan Junior Girls v Finland = Loss

Courtney Melisia 2nd Dan Junior Girls v Germany = Win
Courtney Melisia 2nd Dan Junior Girls v Argentina = Loss

Jeremy Hanna 3rd Dan Patterns Junior Boys v Germany = Win
Jeremy Hanna 3rd Dan Patterns Junior Boys v Argentina = Win
Jeremy Hanna 3rd Dan Patterns Junior Boys v USA = Win
Jeremy Wins Gold Medal

Chris Broughton 1st Dan Male Senior Patterns v Argentina = Win
Chris Broughton 1st Dan Male Senior Patterns v Peru = Win
Chris Broughton 1st Dan Male Senior Patterns v Poland = Win
Chris Broughton 1st Dan Male Senior Patterns v Norway = Win
Chris Broughton 1st Dan Male Senior Patterns v Paraguay = Win
Chris Wins Gold Medal

Carolina Dillen 1st Dan Female Senior Patterns v Uraguay = Win
Carolina Dillen 1st Dan Female Senior Patterns v Scotland = Win
Carolina Dillen 1st Dan Female Senior Patterns v Finland = Win
Carolina Dillen 1st Dan Female Senior Patterns v Argentina = Win
Carolina Dillen 1st Dan Female Senior Patterns v Chille = Win
Carolina wins Gold Medal

Matt Davey 2nd Dan Senior Male Patterns v Uraguay = Win
Matt Davey 2nd Dan Senior Male Patterns v Bolivia = Win
Matt Davey 2nd Dan Senior Male Patterns v Poland = Win
Matt Davey 2nd Dan Senior Male Patterns v USA = Win
Matt Davey 2nd Dan Senior Male Patterns v Norway = Loss
Matt Davey Wins Silver Medal

Alex Couling 2nd Dan Female Senior Patterns v Belgium = Win
Alex Couling 2nd Dan Female Senior Patterns v England = Loss

Ritchie Lavin 3rd Dan Patterns Senior Male v Russia = Win
Ritchie Lavin 3rd Dan Patterns Senior Male v Argentina = Draw, Win
Ritchie Lavin 3rd Dan Patterns Senior Male v Uraguay = Win
Ritchie Lavin 3rd Dan Patterns Senior Male v Finland (World Champion) = Draw, Loss
Ritchie Lavin Wins Bronze Medal

Toni Moki 3rd Dan Female Senior Patterns v Finland = Draw, then Win
Toni Moki 3rd Dan Female Senior Patterns v Argentina = Loss

Sandi Galpin 4th Dan Senior Female Patterns v Germany = Loss

Mark Trotter 4th Dan Senior Male Patterns v Germany = Win
Mark Trotter 4th Dan Senior Male Patterns v Italy = Win
Mark Trotter 4th Dan Senior Male Patterns v Canada = Win
Mark Trotter 4th Dan Senior Male Patterns v Poland = Loss
Mark Trotter Silver Medal (Lost to now 4 times world champion)

Team Patterns
Female Junior Team Patterns v England = Win
Female Junior Team Patterns v Germany = Win
Female Junior Team Patterns v Poland = Win
Junior Female Team Wins Gold Medal

Female Senior Team Patterns v USA = Win
Female Senior Team Patterns v Norway = Loss

Male Junior Team Patterns v Italy = Draw, Loss

Specialty Technique
Melissa Timperley Junior female Specialty = Bronze Medal
Amy Reeder Junior female Specialty = 4th Equal
Kara Timmer Junior female Specialty = 4th Equal
Nikki Galpin Senior Female Specialty = No placing
Aramai Tahau Junior Boys Specialty = Gold Medal
Shane Black Junior Boys Specialty = Silver Medal
Hamish Duncan Junior Boys Specialty = No Placing

Pre Arranged Sparring
Michael and Simon Davis Junior Pre Arranged v Venezuela = Win
Michael and Simon Davis Junior Pre Arranged v Spain = Loss

Working on photos for you now....

Thursday 26 November 2009

Days 1 & 2 of Competition - What's On?

Morning
Individual Pattern
Team Pattern
Individual Special Technique - Female Senior and Junior

Afternoon
Individual Pattern
Team Pattern - All
Prearranged - Junior
Sparring - Junior Female -60
Individual Special Technique - Junior Male

Friday morning
Congress

Friday afternoon
Individual Sparring
Senior pre-arranged
Individual Special Technique - Senior Male

Download the official schedule in Excel format here

How to get the NZ Team World Champs Medal Results Fast

Provided all goes according to plan, I'll be posting NZ Team medal winnings via www.twitter.com/tkdaction via my mobile phone. They appear on the right hand side panel of www.tkdaction.com. You can get these delivered free to your mobile phone as I've described a few weeks ago. Twitter to mobile instructions are here. Don't ask me for help if you need it though as I'm flat out now.

At the end of each day here I'll be posting photos of the action which should come on-line around 2-4pm NZ time, 10-12pm Argentina time. Once posted I'll post them to www.facebook.com/tkdaction too.

Further down the right hand column is a tile with the unofficial NZ medal results to date which I'll also update at the end of each day.

The tournament starts tomorrow morning (0800 Thursday 26th Argentina time / 12am Friday 27th NZ Time).

Cheers,
Doug

Haka Practice in the Car Park

No training today... just a Haka practice in the car park outside. It's looking good and will be a highlight during the opening ceremony on Friday afternoon.


Here are a few more images from today's practice (21)...

Successful Weigh-in - Now's Good for Shopping

The NZ team started their weigh in at 8.30am and we're finished by 11am. After the Italy World Cup fiasco weigh ins had been well planned and groups were programmed in for certain times so competitors weren't standing around waiting for hours. As it was other countries didn't follow instructions and turned up randomly in bulk. The kiwi team, being well organised, came through in small groups at the designated time and sailed through.

There were a few nervous competitors as if you weren't in your weight range, you had one hour to work and weight in again then that was it, disqualification.

As it was we think their scales may have been weighing in light and all of the Kiwis were fine although many were starving.

Story of a dieter I know: Jeremy weighted in at about 10.30am this morning (it’s now 4.15pm). He was feeling pretty awful yesterday because he was so hungry. Monday convinced him to have soup for tea, Tuesday no food and little water. Went to supermarket and bought chocolate and 3 x re-hydration drinks for after weigh in. Today weighed in at 2kg under and he felt the scales could have been about a kilo on the light side.

When he got back took Jeremy, Aramai and Kane a block away to an Italian casual café/restaurant and they all ordered a huge steak toasted sandwich each. I ordered nothing knowing they’d not finish and ended up having some of Jem’s 50% leftovers. Aramai was the only one to get more than 50% throgh the huge meal - see photos below.


Since then Carolyn and Sharon convinced me to let them take me to the “market” clothing shops. Bought a few training singlets, T shirts and hoodie for Mark and Pat. Was taken to a leather jacket shop which was closed and will go back later with Jem. NZ$200 leather jackets - really good quality dress ones.

Labour is cheap so clothing is locally made and very cheap, and leather especially so (big cattle industry).

Decided not to take photos today to have a rest. Been getting up at 6.30am and pretty much worked most of the day hitting the sack at close to midnight. Sleeping not fantastic but not too bad either. Got up at 4am this morning and wrote some lists. Then went back to bed and slept until 7.50am!! Can’t leave phone off and alarm on. May use my old nz phone in flight mode for the alarm clock to wake me up. No alarm clocks in our rooms.

Ready to get into it although I know it’s going to be the hardest event to cover yet I think. Crowds galore expected. Have no desk in my room so spending hours each day with the hot laptop on my knees is a bit of a killer.

Cheers
Doug

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Pick of the Pix from Today's Training at the Venue

Here are my picks from the images captured at the venue - less a great one that's officially censored and has to wait until after the games begin (so as not to give away the nice surprise).

As you may guess this can only be Mark Trotter nicely backlit

Stuart Maden

Carolina Dillen nicely backlit

Junior femal team practicing team patterns

Stuart Maden (facing) sparring with Aramai Tahau

Amanda Cleland (facing) sparring with Ross Black

Shane Black

It's now 11.35pm here - g'night all.

Training at the World Champs Venue

The venue appears to be awesome. It's a little like the venue for the Nationals in Wellington except that the "stands" are deeper and go around all 4 sides. I think we counted 7 rings with the traditional raised ring 1. Each ring has an elevated flat screen monitor and all rings are scored with electronic scoring systems which will make the whole event go much faster.

Lots of other teams are turning up in town... we've seen team members from Ireland, Canada, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, USA and Germany... possibly more... some at the vanue and some cruising around town.

I've been asked not to show photos of the whole venue but I'll have photos of the venue as soon as the event is underway.



Here are a few photos that I've picked out from the training today, including a few of other team practicing. They only had limited lights on so I had to use a lot of flash and, hating that, have converted many to balck and white which look better under the circumstances.

Photos from training at the venue (62)...

World Champs Mar Del Plata - Pick of the Pix So Far

Everyone seems to be taking it easy this morning so I took a couple of hours to go through the last few days photos and make a selection of my Pick of the Pix.

Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/50s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

And the rest (146)...
[I've had a comment that I'm only taking photos of Aucklanders. It's not true. I've just spent two hours going through the last few day's images (several thousand I may add) picking the best out to feature in the "Pick of the Pix" above so I know the images I'm capturing pretty well. During the training sessions I prefer to photograph those giving the most intensity, have good technique and that photographically look the best. So if someone turns up in an old grey or light blue T shirt or singlet top with some ugly graphics on them then I'm not going to chase after a good photo of them because I won't get one that I'd be happy with. Yesterday I took 750 photos of the two training sessions over three hours and then took another hour and a half to go through them and select the ones that appealed to me as being good shots worth publishing. I finished working around mid-night. I'm trying to get great photos of everyone but I'm afraid that some people don't photograph well, are a bit shy or self-concious in front fo the camera, and despite my best efforts I can't help how they look when photographed. So, when I choose lots of images of some people (eg Mark Trotter featured a lot yesterday) it's because of their intensity, technique, choice of clothing, look, comfort at being photographed, time out there on the floor training and then on top of that random chance that I actually capture some good images of them that are exposed correctly, well composed, and in focus etc. Also, anyone not on the floor a lot working really hard isn't going to get featured either. I hope no one's offended by these comments - there's certainly no offence intended - I'm just explaining how I work - how I choose what to "chase" and what I regard makes as a good image when I pick them out of the hundreds taken.]

Looking forward to the start of the competition on Thursday (Thursday's images and results will be on-line when you wake up on Friday morning as midnight here is 4am in NZ and we'll be tweeting wins as they happen).... it feels a bit like the calm before the storm!

Thursday is individual and team pattersn... reminds me I must find and check out the programme.

Cheers for now.
Doug

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Monday's Training - More Pictures

Here are the rest of my picks of the best photos from today's training plus the rest of the training images at the bottom of this post.

A big shout out to all the non-kiwi's following our website. Looking forward to seeing you in a few days if you are coming to the World Champs tournament. Leave a comment to say gidday!

Look out for the 2011 World Champs logo on some of our T shirts - we've brought a few extra along with us!

Clint King warms up

Jeremy Hanna mid-air

Courtney Meleisea leading the Junior Female Team

Mr Dave Ballard - Head Coach

Melissa Timperley in focus

Carolina Dillen



Sandi Galpin

And the rest of today's training images (132)...