Second day of competition pulls in 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze

Summary of the day's successes:

All of our special technique teams won medals.
Senior male team special technique - gold medal
Junior female team special technique - gold medal
Junior male team special technique - silver medal
Senior female team special technique - bronze medal

Shane Black, junior male heavyweight sparring, bronze medal


Detailed commentary:

It was a day that started kiwis in action everywhere dominated by junior sparring with lots of kiwi action characterised by emotional highs and lows. The day finished early due to the holding of the ITF Congress from 3pm-6pm so the competition stopped prior to this and the scene changed to medal ceremonies which saw more than it's fair share of kiwis receiving metal.

Senior male team special technique - gold medal

We got off to a flying start with the senior men's team special technique playoffs which were postponed from yesterday.

Romania, Netherlands, Poland and NZ were through to the playoff for gold. Fist up Jon Sawden for jumping turning kick - 2 points for a hit. The only other team through was Poland. Carl Van Roon was up next for reverse turning kick which was successful. Poland also successful. Next was mid air kick. Carl up again and gets it. Elation from supporters. Poland up and missed. NZ team wins gold!


Junior female team special technique

Cori is up first - lines up the high kick and smashes the board over for 2 points! Paige hits the turning kick but fails to move the board far enough to get any points. The pressure builds as Melissa measures up the overhead kick - no one has hit it so far. She runs. Jumps. Clears the ribbon. Breaks the board!! 2 points - Gold medal!

Senior female team special technique

Lizzie missed the high kick. Estee got the turning kick giving us 2 points. Thu collects the ribbons on the overhead. Playoff against Canada for silver on
the turning; they got it, Estee hit it but not enough to score. Bronze for NZ!

Sparring results

Today New Zealand had a few 'controversial' decisions within the sparring competition.

Jeremy Hanna, junior male heavyweight sparring

Jeremy is up for the first fight of the day - first bout in Junior Heavy Weight sparring. He has 5 minutes to get ready and makes it to the ring with about 2 minutes to go.. He looks psyched up and ready to fight. After a 30 second stare down between him and his Polish opponent the fight begins - both are quick and contact is heavy. Jeremy lands a nice head kick and the Pole gets angry, Jeremy takes a heavy punch but immediately replies with a solid rear hand smack bang in the middle of the Pole's face - both are fouled for excessive contact but still go hard. Jeremy continues to dominate with the hands landing multiple jumping punches plus another staggering right hand. bout ends...... It’s a draw! Round 3 seems pretty even - Jeremy lands clear punches but the kicking seems even... round ends. Win to Poland. The first of the 'controversial' decisions.


Shane Black, junior male heavyweight sparring

Shane is up next against USA - although starting slow, Shane dominates both rounds landing powerful head kicks and right hands, USA is knocked down again and again. Shane slips on the mat and injures his knee as he lands in an awkward position. Bout goes to Shane.


Bradley Wickman, junior male middleweight sparring

Brad vs Argentina. Brad is called to the ring and has to prepare quickly. Lots of faking interspersed with quick exchanges of hands and feet. Brad dominates the centre of the ring - pushing his opponent out a number of times, almost completely off the side of the raised ring. Second round is very similar, although Brad still dominates - Argentina works well going 'in and out', a few single points are scored against Brad. Bout ends.... Win to Argentina - another 'controversial' decision. Argentina goes on to win bronze.

David Burr, junior male middleweight sparring

David is up against Argentina in the central raised ring. David puts up a huge physical fight against the Argentinean, charging in with conviction. Both are going hard. The Argentinean seems to be scoring the clearer points. David's style is very mobile and thus he found it difficult to manoeuvre due to the slippery mats - creating a few minus points from warnings. Bout eventually goes to Argentina.



Estee Speirs, senior female microweight sparring

Estee vs Finland. Estee comes out strong and dominates with her longer legs, lots of action in both rounds - Estee seems to be up on points. Estee stays busy constantly exchanging hits with her opponent. Judges decision: draw! Round 3 is very close - too close to call... and the winner: Finland. The third round could have gone either way - but it looked as though Estee had it won after the first 2 rounds - debatable.


Stuart Maden, junior male middleweight sparring

Stu is up against a bigger fighter from Ireland. First round Stu comes out pumped up, the Irish fighter is scrappy and likes his hands. Stu manages three spectacular head kicks - first a turning kick leaving him stunned - second round he lands a reverse hooking kick, followed by a massive downward kick! Win to Stu!



Matthew Hartigan, junior male middleweight sparring

Matthew vs Canada. Round 1 seems pretty even, Matt starts strong and the action stays around the centre of the ring. Round 2 - the taller Canadian manages a couple of head kicks but Matt manages to get a few punches in. Bout eventually goes to Canada.



Shane Black, 2nd fight vs Poland

Shane's up in his second fight - up against a huge fighter from Poland. Shane starts slow once again - Poland is catching him with lots of well timed jumping punches as Shane comes in with his legs, Poland is up at the end of round 1. Shane comes out firing on all cylinders in round 2 - a completely different fighter, he is busy - scoring with a couple of nice head high turning kicks! The Pole impales himself on a huge sidekick from Shane at the end of the round. Bout ends... One round each... Shane takes it out!! On to the quarter-finals.


Stuart Maden, 2nd fight

Stu is fighting again, this time vs a solid fighter from the USA. Both started slow, but eventually turned into a slug-fest, both landing hard punches, Stu's nose starts up again, but he continues to the end of the bout. A close fight but unfortunately another decision again the Kiwis.



Shane Black, 3rd fight

Shane is in the quarter-final against a good fighter from the Netherlands. Again, Shane waits for his opponent to throw the first move, his opponent is really quick and manages to get in and out in a quick exchange of hands. about 30 seconds in to round one his opponent rushed in again - Shane slides back and shoots up a beautiful Side kick into his jaw, his knees buckle and he falls down. A couple of minutes later he gets up and makes it to his chair. Shane wins as his opponent is unable to continue.



Cullum, junior male lightweight sparring

Callum vs Canada. The Canadian is a little smaller and quite quick. Callum comes out hyped and charges his opponent with well timed barrages of punches followed by kicks delivered to both the body and the head. He is all over the Canadian - after pushing him out of the ring for the 9th time, the bout is halted briefly as the jury table has run out of numbers to show Canada’s warnings. They restart and Callum continues to dominate. Bout ends with the battered Canadian on 21 warnings. Win to Callum, straight into the quarter-final against Brazil.

Once again Callum dominates his opponent - scoring with hands and feet, Brazil gets pushed around a lot. A high-intensity match - Callum seems to be a little ahead on points, but warnings are piling up against Brazil. Bout ends - it must be a win for Callum with his opponent on 12 warnings. Bout goes to Brazil! What? Astonishment amongst the team - this should have put Callum into the semi-final for medal contention.

Shane Black, 4th fight, semi-final

Shane is in the semi-final against a lightning-fast Argentinean. Both start slow but the smaller Argentinean is very agile and manages to stay out of the way of Shane's legs. Shane manages a couple of clear body turning kicks in the first round but the Argentinean is up on points from his 'in and out' jumping punches. Second round is quiet and towards the end Argentina lands some really clear side kicks. Shane battles back with some more body kicks but will it be enough? Bout ends... it's close... a draw maybe? No, win to Argentina - well fought. Perhaps if Shane hadn't been injured in his first fight he may have come out with a win, but still - Bronze medal in junior male heavyweight sparring!

Carolina Dillen, senior female lightweight sparring

Carolina is fighting a 4th dan from Canada. The Canadian is tall and has a longer reach than Carolina. But Carolina is lightning quick with her legs and manages a number of good body kicks in the first round. Both are strong with their hands and seem evenly matched in that area. Round two is high intensity - Carolina moves round the ring, manoeuvring around the Canadians legs and popping some nice turning kicks and jumping punches. Carolina lands a clear head kick. It has put her ahead in a tough match. Win to Carolina.


Carolina's 2nd fight, vs Germany

Carolina vs Germany; quarter-finals. The German is vice-world champion. Both start strong - again high intensity and Carolina is busy. Carolina caught the German off-guard many times in the first round out-scoring with hands and feet. She's so quick!! 1st round must be Carolina's. 2nd round is more evenly match - both clash lots and points are being scored on both sides. The German manages to score 2 or 3 clear side kicks in the closing seconds. Carolina looks like she is still ahead though. Bout ends. And the winner is..... Germany!! Must have been so close… even the German coach said it was too close to call.

Junior male team special technique

Junior boys are up for team special technique. Maximum points so far is 4 (turning kick and reverse turning kick) by USA. Brad lines up the high kick but is unsuccessful. David throws a powerful turning kick half an inch lower than the board. Jeremy is up for the mid-air kick, he hit the height in the warm up so it should be alright. A big jump and nice kick achieves the height but narrowly misses the board to the left. Shane nails the reverse turning kick with huge power - flipping it all the way around and back again - 2 points. It’s up to Aramai with the overhead kick. The kiwi's pull back the boundary rope surrounding the specialty ring to maximise the small run-up space. Aramai sprints across the mat - flies through the air and breaks the board, but takes the ribbon with him. NZ are in a playoff for silver with Canada, Netherlands and Poland. Tie-breaker is overhead kick - Shane is selected. He sails over the ribbons and breaks the board, taking out Mr Pellow on the landing. 2 points awarded! Canada takes out the ribbons. Netherlands slips and misses the distance. Poland takes off too late and hits the barrier - Silver for junior male team specialty!!

More photos from today...