I arrived at 8.30am to warm Pete up as he was fight 2002. Looking around there wasn't to many people there, I would say about 30 competitors and maybe around 50 friends, family and coaches.
There were plenty of faces I knew from the Victorian clubs, those that you expect to be there such as national winners.
The venue itself wasn't ideal, two basketball courts, one for warming up and one set up with two rings, had little seating and no visible place to get anything substantial to eat. A little disappointing as I could have done with a coffee to get me going.
Pete had arrived at around 8am and had been jogging up and down in the small hall. We did around 20 minutes on the mits and bag thinking the competition would start on time at 9am. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and after about an hour they called the first fight.
Pete was fighting a guy I hadn't seen or heard of before. He started a bit edgy, looking tense but still had some good footwork. I watched him fire a clean back foot round house that made a huge pop on the LaJust. The crowd cheered thinking it scored but as I checked, points were still nil all. This seemed to be common throughout the day were clean, solid kicks were not scoring. Then on the other hand I noticed the lightest of running kicks score when the opponent was caught off guard. Its really hard to know what scoring method is most effective with LaJust, whether wear and tear or overuse has to something to do with it Im not sure.
Pete fought exceptionally well (the best I have seen him) and with ten seconds to go he was up by one point. After the round had finished everyone had thought he had taken the win but to all of our disbelief the scores showed 6-5 in favor of his opponent. Bad luck but then with two clear points scored against him from kyong-go, Pete knows what he needs to work on.
The rest of the day was filled with some amazing fights, the intensity and speed of the players was exceptional. With scoring being sometimes difficult on the chest guards and now with the four point rule for a turning kick to the head, there was some amazing acrobatics from some of the competitors. It really makes our sport so much more enjoyable to watch when players are taking it to each other and producing spinning kicks to the head.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the day, being a spectator and able to relax and watch Australias best.
The only down side was what I saw towards the end of the competition. A young boy had been fighting well all day. He was sharp and has some real potential though unfortunately was a little bit unlucky, in some instances out classed and had the occasional decision go against him. He lost the two matches I watched but not by much. Afterwards his father verbally abused him in front of all surrounding. What he had to say was ignorant and wrong and I was left appalled by the incident. Everyone who saw it was shocked at the behavior. I felt so sorry for the boy having to deal with that. After all he did do his best and should be commended for his efforts. I am a firm believer in if you have nothing constructive to say then you shouldn't say anything at all.
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