At 8:15am, we picked up Austin's best friend, Soren, and headed to Carman for the 2010 Premier Taekwondo Championships.
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Waiting to compete for patterns.
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Mr. Mayert and Mr. Drummond, third degree dans from our club, competing in patterns.
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Austin and Soren doing their patterns.
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Austin grabbed my camera and took some pictures of me while I was doing my pattern. (Thanks, Buddy!) How it works: you compete against another person from your division and then the three judges declare a winner. From there, you compete again and if you win twice, you win gold. So, my first match, I won.
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And my second match, as well. :)
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My first gold medal at a tae kwon do tournament. Actually, now that I think about it, that might be my first gold medal ever.
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After patterns, I competed in board breaking. (No pictures, unfortunately.) I had two boards to break: I broke the first one with a back spin kick (just like I did
here) and attempted to break my second board with a step-behind-sidekick, but unfortunately wasn't successful. There were two other women in my division. The first one broke both of her boards and the other only one, like me. However, the kick I used to break my board was more difficult/challenging than hers, so I won the silver medal.
For the black belt board breaking, I got to scorekeep, which was a fun learning experience.
Onto the sparring...
After seeing my would-be competition (young, fast and good!), I was SO thankful that I'd decided against sparring in this tournament. Once I was done my patterns and board breaking, I felt so happy and relaxed that I was finished competing for the day.
Of course, that left time for me to focus on cheering on my favourite blue belt:
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Here, he's wearing the blue helmet.
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And here, he's wearing the white helmet and the red circle on his chest protector. Even though he didn't take home a medal, I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was of him! He sparred so well-- the best I've ever seen him spar!
And I also got to cheer on some of my friends. Holly (in blue, then in red), from my club...
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And Evelyn (in red), my friend from the Carman/Treherne branch, who won the gold medal for her division:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnunEr6pDgUMLgpE7mvTq3nUC_RVORmbYmo9OC2e41vDH3tGw89vFwjbdyWsGDOklVo_eIocBUZxwRZWD82igIwlv1i7zZShpGZRGL6Qqdr5w_dDMwzHeLDG_5N6GLHLT8RHRHvA/s640/2010+04+24+133-1.jpg)
Austin ended up leaving once he was done, with Soren and his parents. I stayed to watch Holly and Ev compete and was also able to do some timekeeping for a couple of matches, which was fun.
I made it home to Morden at five, picked up Austin and then we went to a bar-b-q at some friends' from church-- a thank you to Cameron who helped them move their sister into her new house that afternoon.
We didn't stay very late. I walked home with the kids, did the baths, jammies routine and let them watch Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel while I scrapbooked at the dining room table.
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And that is my week in the life for April 2010.
Thanks for looking!