Home Sweet Home

After a night out with the other fighters i have had to get up at 7 am as our bus to the Airport is leaving at 8 and i need to get some breakie in before we fly.

This has by far been one of the best tournaments that i have been to in my entire fighting career, China put on an amazing show - who ever will be hosting the next Combat Games in 4 years time has a lot to live up to.

The people of China are very warm and friendly and their hostpitality can not be matched. The organisation of these Games has been Flawless.

This is by far a competition that all of our English Fighters should be working to qualify for.

Even Beijing Airport is outstanding - they have a Chinese Garden inside the airport with a fountain and everything! After a little duty free shopping what more do you want then to sit and watch the fishes before you board your plane.

It feels like i have been here longer than 7 days but this is on my top 5 list of future destinations for a holiday.

Thank you China for an amazing trip

x

Day 6 - Great Wall of China

As the finals were not until 7pm this evening - Greg and myself decided that would HAD to make it to see the Great Wall. I missed out on the trip with Canada and New Zealand as they visited it the day before we were competing.

It was only a hour away in a taxi and for 50 quid the driver also waited for use there to drive us back to our hotel.

All i can say about the Great Wall is how the hell did these people build this???

It is seriously an Magnificent sight - words cant describe it and the pictures that i have taken today do not even do it justice. We only walked a small section of the wall and believe me if i was Gengis Khan trying to get it to China back i the day i would take one look at this this and say forget it!

We made it back in time to watch the finals.

Tunisia beat USA in the final in a good match.

Now i am even more focused - lets get ready for the worlds in Serbia in 8 weeks :)

Day 5 - Competition Day

Up early to catch 7:20 bus

I had a nice rest at the stadium as i was not on until 12pm

When the competition started their was a cartoon animation explaining the rules for kumite and when techniques score what points. This was a great idea as there were groups of people that have come to watch this event as a day trip.

The compeition set up was similar to the world games.

There are 8 atheletes in each weight and they are divided into two pools A and B

Each pool is a round robin and the top two fighters in pool A will fight the top two fighters in pool B.

In my Pool i had

NZL 1st fight

Mal 2nd fight

USA 2rd fight

For the semi final i had Tunisia

For bronze medal i fought agains Peru

click here to see the match results

Day 4 - Retail Therapy - Wangfujing

Collected our Kimonos this morning and weighed in - 60.4kg, i think this is the lightest i have ever weighed.

Decided that we are in need of a little retail therapy ideally i would have liked to visit the Famous Silk market where i could hunt down so new handbags - but alas i am fighting tomorrow so need to be sensible and make sure that my legs get enough rest.

On our way back we met some crazy Taekwondo fans outside the hotel that are acting as volunteers to promote the games to the public.

Tomorrow the comp starts.

Day 3 Muay Thai

Up at 7:30 again for another training session. Working through the same drill - but this time everything is coming together. Im still getting over the shock of seeing Jet Li and Jackie Chan yesterday.

Today we have to hand in our Kimonos so that they can have our competitor numbers put on the back.

This afternoon - both Greg and myself took a trip to go and watch the Muay Thai Finals. I have never been a big fan of this sport as im a bit squimish when it comes to full contact. ( ironic i know!)

It was really interesting to see the dance rituals that each of the fighters perform before the match starts. I couldn't work it out at first but it was really something to watch.

Opening Ceremony

I have just been to the most amazing Opening Ceremony every!!!

Jet Li and Jackie Chan were both there!! what more can you ask for!?!?

All of the Athletes and extra officials set off from the hotel in a convoy to the Olympic site. Where they would be hosting the Ceremony. There were police escorts that stopped all of the traffic in Beijing to allow the Convoy of coaches to pass.

At the Ceremony all of the spectators were given Goodie bags, containing a clapper, bottle of H20, Fan and various other goodies.

This was probably the 1st ceremony that i have actually enjoyed - the Chinese did not spare any expense in the entertainment.

Check out the Pics

Yuanmingyuan Gardens

Today we are doing a little sight seeing - we took a trip to Yuanming Yuan Gardens, based in the North West of Beijing. To get there were took the wonderful metro - london underground eat your heart out - in China you get reception on the under ground and TV adverts playing while you are on your journey.