The Big Event: Day One (Chin Woo forms)

OK, it's been a long LONG day, and I don't have the photos off Richard's camera yet, so I'll just post a quick summary of the day and put up something more substantial later.


The team getting ready to leave for the venue

First of all the New Zealand team has medals! I'm not 100% clear on who has what, and winners weren't announced for a couple of the events, as they hadn't been decided by the end of the day. I can tell you that Bronson won silver for his grade's Tan Tui, and Siu Yuat took the gold for Wu Hu Qiang (spear)! That's not all we won, but it's all I'm certain of at the moment.

Of the two events that haven't been announced yet, one was the two man sword/staff form, where Mitchell and Siu Yuat look to be solid contenders for first place.

Medals aside, the highlight of the competition would have to be Vince's entry in the Ba Gua Dao (broad sword). He had just got started in his form, when his broad sword broke in two -- the blade flew off the handle! Such power -- he's to strong even for his own weapon. At any rate, he was able to try again using Tim's sword and did well for himself.

After the day's competition, there was the Opening Ceremony, which included demonstrations from many of the teams. There was a great drunken jian (thin sword) form from one of the Polish competitors, an interpretive wushu version of Romeo and Juliet from one of the Russian teams, and a few more impressive routines besides.

The best part was when the MC announced "and now, a demonstration from the New Zealand team," which was news to the New Zealand team, who didn't think they were giving a demonstartion. Not a problem, though -- coach Guo sent down Mitchell to show off his Di Tang (tumble boxing) form, which got a great response from the crowd.

After the ceremony was over, it was on a bus to the usual restaurant for dinner, then finally back to the hotel not long before 10PM (we had left the hotel at 8AM -- long day).

Tomorrow it's the traditional forms, which should be interesting to watch, as there's a lot more variety on what people can do. It should also be a shorter day, with no extra ceremonies on the end...