Thursday, May 17, 2007

ARAFURA GAMES



The Arafura Games at the NT, what a crowd there was thousands of athletes from all walks of sports including the Oceania (disabled) athletes, the heat was just as hot as the atmosphere it self.

After a long trip up there finally getting to bed at 1.50am only to wake up at 6am to make the weigh inst from 6.30am, I made the weight Goran was in the o/100kgs, we were back for a very quick bite to eat before heading to the Marrara Indoor stadium.

My first fight was against John Brendecke (Georges brother), our dual was the one to watch, we have both competed against each other in several past events such as the National 06 and the Oceania worlds 05 where john had lost against me on our last 5 meetings. This time john forced me to concede a penalty putting me behind 5pts, then I come back with a counter throw and holding him down for 8pts placing me in the lead, john managed to escape and catch me with a counter throw to win the contest. (first time he has ever won) I am lucky it was this event and not the nationals, (which are to be held in 3wks in SA)

My second match was again Dieter Lorraine of NT, he had given John a hard time for a short period so I did not take this fight lightly as we exchanged attacks and I finally come up with the counter and lead on to the ground to win by hold down. Placing me in second place.

Team mate Goran had 4 players in his division with one withdrawing leaving 3. he faced off against William Hussy of NT for the first international fight which saw Goran lose by Wazari (7pts). Then faced off against George Brendecke of QLD (current Australian HW champion) the fight was a good strong battel George out weighing Goran by 35kgs and kept his attacks up on Goran to catch him out with ippon to take the gold.

The OPEN event started off with 17 players, which dropped down to 9, they placed Goran at one end of the draw and me at the other end, we won all our lead up matches only to end up facing off against each other in the finals. Goran new my style of fighting and tried to keep me at bay but I countered using kata guruma to score 5pts to put me in the lead, as he stood back up to attack I through him with a shoulder throw to claim the gold and Arafura champion.