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Published: December 9th 2005
My apologies for missing the post yesterday. There was a line up at the hotel's only computer.
Yesterday we checked in with the team and into the Bao Son hotel. Romania, Spain, Germany are also in the same hotel with us. It's a decent place about a 2 minute ride to the sports complex. The food is certainly miles above anything they gave us in Macau two years ago.
The Sanshou team had a practice yesterday with all of our members. It was the first time the entire Sanshou team has been able to be together. Ayron and the assistant coaches took them through some warm ups and some drills. There is not much that can be done in the way of teaching skill at this point. It's all mental preperation at this point. We have the largest Sanshou team in Canadian history this year and a sense of team unity and preperation that we have never had.
Last night was also a 'welcome' dinner at a lavish hotel named the Daewoo. We're fairly confident it was put on to impress members of the International Olympic Comittee. As we've told all of you before Wushu is fighting tooth and nail to make it into the Beijing Olympics in 2008. It has been confirmed that Wushu will be a part of those Olympics but it is yet to be decided if medals will be presented, what exact parts of Wushu will be included, etc.
This morning we were up and at it by 5:00 am. Weigh-ins were scheduled to begin at 6:30. Everyone made weight and there were no issues with any of our documentation (this was a huge relief). After weigh-ins there was a rather boring technical meeting followed by the drawing of lots (or as it was posted on the sign outside of the door "Drawing Lost").
Alanna (our only girl fighter) in the 65Kg class drew Great Britain. Bruce, 65Kg, men's Sanshou drew India. Eslam, men's 70Kg, drew Romania. Bart, men's 75Kg drew China, and finally Shane, men's 90Kg, drew a 'by' for the first round and will most likely face Iran in the second round.
Competition begins tomorrow at 8:30 and runs all day. There is a huge number of Sanshou athletes this year (around 260 fighters) and a lot of countries with fighters that didn't participate in the last worlds. This assures us that Sanshou is a growing sport. We are excited to see the level of skill and competition this year.
Tonight is the opening ceremony but most of the Sanshou team is opting out. The opening ceremony is a lot of standing around, hand shaking and baby kissing. We want our fighters to have fresh legs and a strong mind going into tomorrow's events.
Tomorrow is my birthday as well so I'm going to ask all the fighters to hit someone in the face for me!!
Love to all.
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Bujas T.
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Canadian Team Unity!
Go Team Canada! All for one and one for all! Best Wishes and Many Blessings to All!!! Learn! Enjoy!