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Published: December 14th 2005
Hi everyone. Today is the last day of competition. Due to the few people in Shane's division his fight was not until this morning. He drew Iran (we seem to have some strange connection with them as a team). Shane fought well but in the end the Iranian was too much for him. He has a great attitude about it. He left the mat smiling and chatted with the Iranian team after.
Tonight is the final Sanshou competition. These are the gold medal fights and there are some match ups that we know will be great. We're excited to see the women's 48Kg finals between Romania (our hotel mates) and Vietnam. We've watched both these women fight two previous fights and they are little fire crackers to say the least. Secretly my money is on Romania but don't tell our Vietnamese friends that! Also we are looking forward to the finals in Barts 75Kg division. China vs. the UK. Derek you will remember the Chinese fighter as the same one from Ayron's division in Macau. Back in 2003 he fought a Russian fighter for the gold and the Russian won. This year that same Russian fighter is in the 80Kg class and so far he has wiped the mat with every opponent. I can't recall who the Russian 80Kg guy fights tonight but I don't think it would matter. You could put King Kong in front of this guy and he'd clean up. I'm sure every match will be exciting. The Vietnam team has 7 men and women fighting for gold. I know they will walk away with more than a few.
Tonight is also the Goodbye Dinner again at the Daewoo hotel. I'm having a difficult time figuring out why they scheduled this dinner for the same time as the final fights. The final night of Sanshou is always the biggest crowd draw and pleaser. If I may be so bold I'd like to say that it is interesting that the organizing committee always gives Sanshou the back seat but it always draws a crowd and gets the fans going. I am hopefull for the day when both Talou and Sanshou are treated equally.
Today we went to the Museum of Culture. Vietnam has a population of about 85 million people. A good 75/80% of this population are rural village people. They still carry on their ancient cultural traditions and it was interesting to learn about them today. There are many Taoist and Buddist influences and in many of the tribes aspects of both are blended together.
Tomorrow the team says good bye and I'm sad for the end. We have had a lot of fun together. I have to say from my observations that we have laughed and smiled more than any other team. We are supportive of each other and other competitors. I view this tournament as a huge success for us. Our success is not measured by medals. It is measured by the friends we've made, the good times we've had and our growth as a team.
I will try to make another post tonight after the finals and let everyone know the outcomes.
Love to all.
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Bujas T.
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Living the philosophy!
Some wisdom passed down to me: "Make more friends, not more techniques!" and "If you can win a person's heart that is true kungfu!" Good job to all for living and practicing the philosophy! Melissa your writing "rolls" - rollergirl! :)