Victorious New Zealand Team Bring Their Gold Home
International Taekwon-Do Foundation (NZ), Inc
PRESS
RELEASE
14 December 2002
Victorious New Zealand Team
Bring Their
Gold Medals Home
The ITFNZ Taekwon-Do junior team will arrive home from the 6th International Taekwon-Do Federation Junior World Championships early on Monday morning, bringing with them three gold, two silver and four bronze medals. The New Zealand team came third overall in a competition of about forty countries.
The tournament was held in Ponce, Puerto Rico from the 4th to the 8th of December.
The New Zealand team arrive at Auckland International Airport from Los Angeles at 6:05am on Monday 16th December.
The 15 member New Zealand team included the following medal winners:
o Mark Trotter, 3rd
degree black belt from Shore City, Auckland won the gold
medal in male 3rd degree individual patterns.
o Kyle
Caldwell, 1st degree black belt from Tauranga, won the gold
medal in male individual special technique.
o Daniel
Kerr, 2nd degree black belt from Dunedin, won the gold medal
in male individual power test.
o The six member New
Zealand female team won the silver medal in team special
technique, and bronze medals in team pattern and team free
sparring.
o The six member New Zealand male team won the
silver medal in team special technique.
o Harmony Moki,
2nd degree black belt from Papakura, Auckland won a bronze
medal in female lightweight individual free sparring.
o
Nikki Galpin, 1st degree black belt from Palmerston North,
won a bronze medal in individual special technique.
ITF Taekwon-Do tournaments have four individual and four team events: patterns, free sparring, special technique and power. In patterns, competitors perform a sequence of prearranged techniques against imaginary opponents for technical accuracy and power. Free sparring is controlled combat between two competitors.
Special technique involves performing five flying kicks for the greatest height or distance. In the power event, competitors perform five hand and foot techniques to break as many boards as they can. In the team events, five of a six member team compete together in all four events.
Junior World Championships are open to competitors up to 18 years of age. The next Senior World Championships will be held in June 2003 in Warsaw, Poland, and the squad began training early this year.
During the tournament, the ITFNZ Taekwon-Do website (www.itfnz.org.nz) was the most current in the world. Team supporters would email the webmaster, Paul McPhail, at least twice daily. The site went from a regular 8,000 hits per month to over 140,000 in the first six days of December!
The New Zealand team began training for the competition over a year ago, including regular training camps in Taupo so members from throughout New Zealand could come together. The coaches, Steve McQuillan, 3rd degree black belt from Auckland, and Grant Eccles, 3rd degree black belt from Hamilton, were instrumental in developing the team’s technical skills, fitness and mental discipline to a level required for international competition.
Czechoslovakia topped the medal table, followed by Poland and then New Zealand. Canada and the USA completed the top five.
This is the first time New Zealand have won more than a bronze medal at an ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships. In the last Junior World Championships, in Pyong Yang, North Korea in 2000, Jake Goldsmith of Brooklyn, Wellington won a bronze medal in individual sparring. In Senior World Championships, the best New Zealand have done is also one bronze (three times, in Malaysia 1994, Russia 1997 and Argentina 1999).
Further information about the tournament may be found at www.itfnz.org.nz (ITFNZ Taekwon-Do New Zealand, updated twice daily) and www.prtkditf.com (Puerto Rico ITF Taekwon-Do).
The New Zealand team
The New Zealand team (and the events in which they are competing) are:
o Mark Trotter, 3rd degree black
belt, (3rd degree individual patterns, individual
microweight free sparring, team event)
o Daniel Kerr, 2nd
degree black belt, (2nd degree individual patterns,
hyperweight individual free sparring, individual power, team
event)
o Kyle Caldwell, 1st degree black belt,
(heavyweight individual free sparring, individual special
technique, team event)
o Regan Diggelmann, 1st degree
black belt, (1st degree individual patterns)
o Phillip
Diggelmann, 1st degree black belt, (hyperweight individual
free sparring, team event)
o Sam Skinner, 1st degree
black belt, (middleweight individual free sparring)
o
Tonee Francis, 1st degree black belt, (hyperweight
individual free sparring, team event)
o Robert Buddle,
1st degree black belt, (middleweight individual free
sparring)
o Daniel Thompson, 1st degree black belt,
(heavyweight individual free sparring, team event)
o
Harmony Moki, 2nd degree black belt, (2nd degree individual
patterns, lightweight individual free sparring, team
event)
o Roseanne Te Hau, 1st degree black belt, (1st
degree individual patterns, heavyweight individual free
sparring, team event)
o Jessica Te Hau, 1st degree black
belt, (heavyweight individual free sparring, team
event)
o Nicole Kettings, 1st degree black belt, (1st
degree individual patterns, team event)
o Anna Wintle,
1st degree black belt, (1st degree individual patterns, team
event)
o Nikki Galpin, 1st degree black belt, (individual
special technique, individual power, team event)
o Coach,
Steve McQuillan, 3rd degree black belt
o Assistant Coach,
Grant Eccles, 3rd degree black belt
o Manager, Debbie
Trotter
What is Taekwon-Do?
Taekwon-Do is a version of unarmed combat designed for the purpose of self defence. It is more than just that, however.
It is the scientific use of the body in the method of self defence; aiming to gain the ultimate use of one’s body through intensive physical and mental training. Though it is a martial art, its discipline, techniques and mental training are the mortar for building a strong sense of justice, fortitude, humility and resolve. It is this mental conditioning that separates the true practitioner from the sensationalist, content with mastering only the fighting aspects of the art.
Translated literally “Tae” means jumping or flying, to kick or smash with the foot; “Kwon” denotes the fist - chiefly to punch or destroy with the hand or fist; “Do” means art or way.
Taekwon-Do was developed by the late General Choi Hong Hi, who passed away on 15th June 2002.
In New Zealand, ITFNZ Taekwon-Do has over fifty clubs and nearly 2,000 members throughout the country. Members get together regularly for tournaments, training camps and training seminars.
Mark Banicevich
Director of
Marketing
International Taekwon-Do Foundation of New
Zealand
Telephone +61 2 410 300 610
Email
mbanicevich@itfnz.org.nz