2010 Nationals

Saturday the colored belts kicked off at 9am. The blacks were supposed to start at 4pm so we aimed to arrive at 2.30 and get a feel for the place. We soon realized that the competition was running behind schedule by a couple of hours something which tends to happen often. I imagine it must be hard to predict how long a match will take now as the coaches have the ability to contest decisions. Watching for a while it looks like some coaches overuse this right, dragging matches out much longer. Of course it's justifiable if they are in the right but I also noticed many contest cards being taken by the referees. All of a sudden matches which used to take 7-8minutes are stretched out to +10.
The venue itself, at the AIS, looked great having 6 courts and easy access to all facilities.
Once the black belts had started, I took close attention to my division. Partly because I've become friends with the victorians (from MTC) and want them to do well, and to study these guys to see at what level I need to be to have a chance of beating them.
The guy I was supposed to fight, from WA ended up winning silver and would have been a really tough opponent. I remember him from last year as he fought both junior and open, beating me by two points. He's improved, looks strong and fast, having a deadly axe kick which he successfully used on numerous opponents before the final.
Congratulations to Marcus from MTC for taking out gold again, I'm really happy he won as he has such good character. It's great to know that in future training sessions I can spar with him and hopefully learn from him to improve myself.
Also at Team Carlo, Tom did an outstanding job. Congratulations mate, it's been great to see your development into a top athlete. Tom took out gold in both junior and senior divisions.
After every nationals I take a week off to relax and recover. I've had a chance to see the usual sights in Canberra and am now about to board a flight to Brisbane. I generally use this time to freshen up from the hard training leading up to a competition though this time it is giving me a chance for the injuries to fully heal.