The first weekend of March was a big weekend of competition in Melbourne with the United ITF Taekwondo organisation running their Victorian Championships on Saturday, and then the ITF King of the Ring held on Sunday.
Trent Hayden of ILShim Sunshine Coast made the trip to take part in both of these events.
The Victorian Championships was held in a very friendly atmosphere, with a good range of competitors and a diverse range of experience. It was great to mix with lots of people that Trent had not met in competition before. We made some new friends and renewed some old friendships, and met a lot of nice people during the course of the day. Trent competed in patterns and sparring, winning first place in both events. He withdrew from the Special Techniques event due to not wanting to risk any injury before the Sunday competition.
Each year Melbourne hosts a major international fitness expo called FITX which was held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. This was the venue for the ITF King of the Ring. This event was a little different to our usual ITF competitions as there were no separate weight divisions. All the fighters, from the largest to the smallest, were included in the one draw in a winner take all competition to be run in a standard boxing ring. The atmosphere in the stadium was exciting with thousands of people passing through the expo and
many stopping to observe the action in the ring. All of the competitors were either past or present World Championship representatives, and reputations were on the line.
Trent thrived in this public arena and put on a crowd pleasing display of ITF Taekwon-do sparring to eventually win the event and be crowned as the ITF King of the Ring.
Trent would like to thank the organisers of both events, including Master Michael Muleta, Global Fitness Institute, and United ITF Taekwondo, for their hospitality over the course of weekend.
