The ITF World Cup was the biggest tournament of the year with over 1000 competitors from 35 different countries participating. The atmosphere was amazing over 5 days. Master Daher also got promoted to 9^th Dan. Our first GM in this federation. Sabumnim Michael Nguyen also was promoted to 6^th Dan by GM Ung Kim Lan in an extraordinary grading.

Results for the tournament are below:

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – 14-17 yo 1^st-3^rd Dan Special Techniques
1^st – 14-17 yo 1^st – 3^rd Dan <68kg sparring
1^st – Junior Male 1^st-3^rd Dan Team Sparring

Angela Foulstone
Competed well, unfortunately losing to Argentina in Patterns due to a few critical errors.
In special techniques, she got full points for the flying side kick but missed the front kick due to nervousness.

Larita Bouphasavanh
She completed well unfortunately losing to Norway in Patterns due to some balance issues with the new mats being used.

Well done to everyone that completed. This was the first time two of our competitors had versed other international competitors. So it was a great opportunity to learn from this experience and to continue to work and build to improve themselves.

If there was an Overall Individual Junior Male award, it would’ve gone to him. There was no other competitor in the Junior Division that won 3 Gold medals. Well done to Leon.

Thank you for Mr Trevor Foulstone and Boosabumnim Tim Hon for supporting the team during this event.

 

                                                    

In September, our students competed in the annual CHITF Lai Taekwon-Do tournament. We had 4 students participate. As usual there was big support from surrounding schools and interstate. Everyone had a great day. Thank you to GM and Master Lai for inviting us. Congratulations to everyone that competed today!!

Results are below: 

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – Senior male <68kg Sparring
1^st – Senior Male Special Techniques

Larita Bouphasavanh
3^rd – 1st-2nd Dan Female Patterns

Philo Lee
1^st – 1st -2nd Dan Junior Male Patterns
2^nd – Sparring

Angela Foulstone
1^st – 5th-1st Gup Female Patterns
2^nd – Junior Female Special Techniques

 

In August, Impact students attended a friendly tournament hosted by USMA. We had 4 students compete. It was a great build up to this year’s World Cup. It was great to see some Taekwon-Do friends from Canberra also. Thank you to Master Cariotis for inviting us.

USMA Open Tournament Results:

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – Junior Male Black belt Sparring
1^st – Senior Male Special Techniques

Luka McPhie
2^nd – Senior Male Special Techniques

Philo Lee
2^nd – Junior Male Mixed Sparring
3^rd – Junior Male Special Techniques

Chris Lin
1^st – Junior 1st Dan Male Patterns
3^rd – Lightweight Junior Black belt Sparring
1^st – Junior Male Special Techniques

Last weekend saw 5 of our black belts attend GM Phap Lu’s seminar. GM Lu travelled with General Choi as his assistant in the early 1980’s and help spread Taekwon-Do around the world. It was a great chance to train with knowledgeable students of General Choi. New friendships were made and it was great to train with different Taekwon-Do practitioners from all around Australia. GM Lu personal said the standard in our school was very high and encouraged us to keep training hard. Everyone that attended enjoyed ourselves and learnt a lot. Thank you GM and Master Lai for inviting us.

          

We had the honour of having the 2 x World Champion Power Breaker Mr Wesley Filiki from New Zealand grace our Do-Jang in North Melbourne. He recently defended his title in Ireland and was the only man to successfully complete all 5 breaks. He brought a lot of energy and laughter into our senior session. We were very fortunate enough to get some tips off this humble man. Thank you once again and all the best with the rest of your trip.

Report from Dublin

Sabumnim Michael Nguyen and Boosabumnim Leon Sejranovic traveled to Dublin in October to compete at the 20^th  ‘Senior and 14th Junior ITF World Championships in Ireland.

Tuesday 10^th October
Team Australia all weighed in today successfully. The opening ceremony just finished and the atmosphere was phenomenal. We rest tonight and competition starts tomorrow. Leon has patterns up first thing in the morning.

Wednesday 11^th October
Leon completed in Pattern’s today. He received a bye in round 1. He then beat Paraguay 4-1 according to the judges. He then beat Uzbekistan in the round of 32. He met with New Zealand in the quarterfinals and unfortunately lost. He kept his composure and did really well despite it being his least favourite event. Well done Leon.

Thursday 12^th October
Leon competed in Special techniques. He touched the front kick at 2.5m but under new rules it needs to bend 45 degrees, so no points were given. He got full points for flying side and turning kicks. He got a technical disqualification for reverse turning kick, even though it looked good – possibly due to the toes being too high. On the last technique, his foot got stuck during takeoff for the midair kick and didn’t score. He was ranked 5th for most of the competition. However, he finished 13th out of 50 competitors with most competitors aged 17 years old. Leon was one of the youngest in the division. Great work Leon.

Saturday 14^th October
Leon had sparring today. He unfortunately lost to Belarus. A couple of bad warnings due to poor umpiring, which would’ve changed the end result. Leon was much classier than his opponent but just needed to be a bit more assertive and use the ring a bit better. He was disappointed, but at the same time he has learnt a lot and is hungrier than ever to work on his weaknesses.

Sunday 15^th October
Team sparring completed yesterday. Australia lost to Scotland. Leon performed really well in his match but wasn’t enough to give Australia win. The end result was a draw in his fight. The level of competition was very high this year.

Tueday 17^th October
Hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland yesterday. Over 250,000 homes without power. 4 people have died due to this hurricane. It is the worst hurricane in 65 years. Leon and I are safe but struggled to travel due to harsh conditions. Flights, buses, taxis trains, lightrails were all cancelled. We were so lucky we found a taxi driver who was headed home to take us to our destination. Dublin was a ghost town yesterday with everything closed and everyone forced to take cover indoors.

Wednesday 18^th October
After the Champs, Leon and I were able to travel around Ireland and managed to secure some training with Mr Hong K Looi (5th Dan) of the Irish National Team and Irish Taekwon-Do Association Technical committee. He runs Newbridge Taekwon-Do. He is 2 x European Champion and 3 x World Champion. The training was intense and very informative. He gave us a lot of insight into how we should be training.

Friday 20^th October
We attended training at Northstar Taekwon-Do under 6th Dan Instructor and Coach Niall Jones. The club produced multi-World Champion/medalists this year (Adam Shelley, Ryan Shelly, Joanne Potter, Rebecca Mooney, Colm Carroll, Ellen Ince and Cian Ince). It was such a great atmosphere to train in. They are very humble and supportive people. We learnt so much and they train so hard. The bar has been raised.

     

Impact students completed at the CHITF Lai TKD tournament. Our team of 7, consisting of Chris, Claire, Ryan, Philo, Tin, Edward and Tommy. There were around 120 competitors from all different schools from Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania. It was a fun weekend. Thank you to GM and Master Lai for inviting us.

Results:

Chris Lin
3^rd – Junior Red belt patterns
2^nd – Lightweight junior male sparring
2^nd – Mixed male spec tech

Claire Lin
2^nd – Junior Red belt patterns
2^nd – Mixed junior girls sparring
4^th – Mixed female spec tech

Ryan Le
1^st – Junior Red belt patterns
1^st – Lightweight junior male sparring

Philo Lee
3^rd – Junior Red belt patterns
1^st – Middleweight junior male sparring

Tin Do
1^st – Peewee Green/blue belt patterns
2^nd – Lightweight junior male sparring

Edward Lo
1^st – Junior Green/blue patterns

Tommy Le
1^st – Peewee Division Yellow/green belt patterns
1^st -Peewee male sparring

Impact TKD sent a small team to this years National Championships in Sydney. Close to 130 competitors competed at the Championships which ran over two days. This also coincided with the national team training that will go on to compete in The World Championships held in Dublin, Ireland. The athletes also received their Team gear and kit for the World Championships in Ireland. Thank you to Master Daher and his team for the invitation to their event and the organisation of the event. We had two competitors compete on the day. Well done to Larita and Leon.

Results:

Larita Boupasavanh
2^nd – Senior Female Black Belt Patterns

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – Under 62kg Junior Black Belt Sparring
1^st – Junior Male Special Techniques

Close to 120 competitors at this year’s RMIT Championships in Melbourne. Our school sent a team of 9 and they all competed with passion and courage. Thank you to GM Lai and Master Lai for the invitation. A great competition with great people. Well done to everyone who competed and assisted to help the day run smoothly.

Results from the tournament:

Amelia Phan
1^st – Junior Female Patterns Division 4

April Tammilehto
2^nd – Junior Female Patterns Division 4

Angela Foulstone
3^rd – Junior Female Patterns Division 4

Ashwin Iyer
2^nd – Junior Male Patterns Division 2

Leon Serjanovic
1^st – Junior Male Patterns Division 4

Philo Lee
2^nd – Junior Male Patterns Division 4
2^nd – Junior Male Sparring Division 4

Erik Laska
4^th – Junior Male Patterns Division 4

Larita Bouphasavanh
3^rd – Senior Female Black Belt 1st to 3rd Dan Patterns

Michael Nguyen
2^nd – Senior Male Black Belt 4th to 5th Dan Patterns
3^rd – Senior Male Black Belt Sparring Division 3

Thousands of people flock to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre every year around this time to check out the Fitness Expo and also to get a chance to see Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. United ITF hosted the Arnold Classic – ITF Taekwon-Do Tournament. Congratulations to Ryan, Philo and Mahdi who competed at the Arnold Classic. Between the three of them 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze. It was also a great honour to perform Choi-Yong in front of Arnold Schwarzenegger himself along with United ITF member’s Justin Chin and Corey Chin. Thank you Master Muleta for inviting us.

Results:

Ryan Le

1^st – Junior Red to Black Belt Pattern

1^st – Junior Peewee Red to Black Belt Sparring

Philo Lee

2^nd – Junior Red to Black Belt Pattern

3^rd – Junior Peewee red to Black Belt Sparring

Mahdi Hassan

3^rd – Junior Red to Black Belt Pattern

2^nd – Intermediate Red to Black Belt Sparring

     

This year New Zealand hosted Oceania’s International Instructor’s Course. There were 169 ITF Black Belt Instructors from NZ, Australia, Malaysia and Finland, in Auckland for the 115th IIC. The where they were put through their paces both physically and mentally by Grand Master Hector Marano (from Argentina), Grand Master Ung Kim Lan (from Vietnam but based in Germany) and Master Paul McPhail (from Auckland NZ.).

It had an extensive program which started on Friday afternoon, all together with some interesting and varied warm up and kicking techniques with Master McPhail, followed by Patterns with Grand Master Marano from Chon-Ji through to Hwa-Rang. GM Marano is like a walking TKD Encyclopaedia, his grasp and attention to detail is quite astounding. After this whilst the 5th Dans and above got GM Marano to themselves for their Patterns, GM Lan took the rest of us through some sparring drills until all too soon the 1st afternoon was over and it was time to go and rest up for the following full day.

Saturday morning started with a quick warm-up, which included some cool partner activities, then followed by a Self-defence program where everyone participated and observed techniques performed by GM Lan and others. He said “there are no rules in self-defence… if you have to fight, you fight… If I lose I’m dead. If I do, I do with all my power.” And promptly showed us examples and then had us practicing them, which included many different ways of defending ourselves from different positions and at different distances.

Then GM Marano took us all for patterns which started from from Choong-Moo, through to Ge-Baek. We separated so that the 2nd Dans and above could go through Eui-Am to Juche with GM Lan, while Master McPhail took the 1st Dans through some very active revision. After Lunch, the 3rd Dans and above got to do 3rd Dan Patterns with Master McPhail, whilst GM Lan did some revision, then we were back together for some combination sparring techniques with GM Lan. Unbeknown to us at the time, GM Marano was grading some of the Malaysian Instructors and before too long the rest of us were offered a break whilst Master Peter Barbour from Australia and Master James Rimmer from NZ were being Graded – a closed session, for 8th Dans.

On the same night, there was a banquet dinner arranged which I was informed was relaxed but still formal. Those who attended dressed well and there was the pleasant surprise of Mr Norman Ng who is a pioneer of TKD in NZ, whom attended too.

Sunday morning after photos and the announcement that Malaysia now has a new  4th, 3rd and 2nd Dan and that both Australia and NZ have a new 8th Dan, we split so tht 3rd Dans and below could do some revision with Master McPhail, whilst the 4th Dans and above went through Yon-Gae to Moon-Moo, and even Ko-Dang Tul, with GM Lan. Then after a quick break, it was all back together for Step Sparring with Master McPhail. Master McPhail had us do some really interesting combinations and had us thinking and doing Step Sparring many different ways. It was a creatively informative Session.

Then whilst 6th Dan’s and above had some time with GM Marano, it was GM Lan’s turn for Sparring drills which were energetic and fun. With time going by just too fast, it was back together for gifts to be given to our visiting Grandmasters and Masters, the hand out of Certificates and with thanks to Master Mahesh Bhana and Mrs Natasha Iotua who organised this very enjoyable and memorable event before GM Marano officially closed what really was an awesome weekend.