Robin

 
Logan

 
Matthew 

NZ  Taekwondo trio handed difficult draw

NZPA - August 20, 2008, 6:47 am

NZPA ©

New Zealand go kicking and screaming into their Olympic Taekwondo programme tomorrow although a painfully tough draw may have dulled the excitement for the three Games newcomers.   The aftermath of a draw from hell sees Logan Campbell testing his nerve against world champion Yu-Chi Sung of Chinese Taipei in the men's 68kg division tomorrow.

Veteran Matthew Beach doesn't have it much easier against Chinese world No 5 Xiaobo Liu in the over-80kg heavyweight class on Saturday.   Korean-born Aucklander Robin Cheong has drawn the most winnable bout, lining up against Ivory Coast opponent Mariam Bah in the first contest of the women's 57kg competition tomorrow.

Cheong, 19, gives away international experience to Bah, 32, but New Zealand coach Jin Oh admitted her draw could have been far worse.  "We're happy at the moment because she (Bah) is from Africa. I think we have a chance," Oh said.

He acknowledged it was a dastardly outcome for the men but backed Campbell and Beach to not back down against classy opponents."They have high world rankings so they will be difficult," he said.   "But that is not the most important thing. This is the Olympics and nobody knows who will get a medal. It will be who is most confident in competition time and who is more focused."

New Zealand's last competition was in Korea six weeks ago, where Oh was pleased with their form in some high-quality competition.   He has approached rival coaches and fighters from Korea and Thailand for information on New Zealand's opening opponents. Video footage was also proving useful.   Liu shapes as a particularly difficult customer, standing 2m tall and, at 104kg, is 10kg heavier than English-born Wellingtonian Beach, 30, who has represented New Zealand for 11 years.

Olympic Gym

I wanted to write a bit about the Olympic gym as apart from the food hall, it is the place I find the most amazing in the village.

I could spend all day just sitting in there and watching the athletes work out. It is like some kind of super hero’s headquarters where the top 3% of the world’s athletes have been genetically cloned and have gathered to practice their evil fighting powers.

Look on the treadmills and you will see small African blokes running a distance and pace that should be impossible. To the right of the treadmill you will see some female athlete who looks like she is cut out of wood, abs you could open a beer on, practicing her triple jump. In the stretching area, a bunch of Romanian gymnasts who look about 13 and are practicing their one armed hand stands with a full splits finish. The gymnast’s look even smaller as they are next to a bunch of 6-7 foot blond Russian female volley ball players who are doing some core exercise work. Glance over to the weights area and you will see guys as wide as they are tall lifting weights that look like they are going to snap the bar in half. Moving, shuffling and dancing between everyone are the Cuban boxers who are franticly shadowing boxing while wearing massive amounts of hooded jackets to sweat off their weight for weigh in.

Amongst all of this… is Matt Beach from New Zealand doing the core strength exercises that Steve Rickard taught him and trying real hard not to make eye contact with the angry looking Russian wrestling team who has about one good ear between them!

If gyms in New Zealand were like this most of the population would be too intimidated to work out. I wanted to take some pictures but I have seen athletes getting very annoyed with people “snapping” them exercising and have decided against it.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us. The draw comes out in 4 days!

Without a doubt one of the most amazing experiences of my life!

 I would encourage any one reading this who has dreams of representing NZ in Tae Kwon Do at an Olympics (or any other sport) to stick with that dream. What I experienced last night made all the sweat, blood and tears it has taken to qualify well worth it.  

We arrived at the stadium next door to the “Birds Nest”quite early and were sectioned off into our countries. This was the gymnastics stadium and was huge!! The countries started to entertain themselves by doing Mexican waves, singing and chanting. After a few hours, they stated calling out the countries to begin lining up for the march in. Unfortunately they used the Chinese alphabet which meant we were number 190!

We were eventually called and begun the walk to the stadium. The route was lined with Chinese volunteers who seemed to be more excited than us and cheered and high fived us the whole way. We stopped briefly while Mahe (That’s Mahe Drysdale, we are on a 1^st name basis now!) was dressed in his Maori Chiefs cloak. As this was happening the hockey boys broke out a Haka which all the other countries, Chinese volunteers and NZ team went crazy over.

The NZ team then entered the tunnel under the “Birds Nest” stadium and it was here that we 1^st heard the roar of the 90,000 crowd inside. We slowly approached the entry to the stadium and the roar got louder and louder. The words “New Zealand” rang out over the sound system and it was our turn to walk into the roar of the stadium.

Now I knew that a lot of friends and loved ones back in NZ would have bravely waited up to see me walk in. I had noticed on the big screen previously that when countries walked in, the camera always seemed to focus on “pretty girls” As I was standing next to Logan “face like a dropped pie” Campbell, I knew my chances of making the TV were low.  Imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw my face beaming back!

One of the amazing things about the whole event was the number of famous people that were within touching distance. I have included some photos of some of the people spotted by Robin Cheong. She was the only team member brave enough to go and ask for photos. See if you can spot them!

Taekwondo team before opening	In the Stadium	About to walk in
Robin and Roger	Robin and NBA star

07/08/08

The dream has started to become a reality and I am now in China at the Olympics!! The trip started well, I scored three seats by myself on the flight over (always a bonus for a lanky person) and managed to get some sleep. We arrived in Beijing and along with the BMX team and weight lifters.

 We were met by Dallas Seymour (ex 7's player) at the airport and swiftly taken to the village.  We were then welcomed by a rousing Haka at the NZ part of the village and given a quick orientation and shown our accommodation.  The NZOC staff have done an amazing job on the place and really made it feel like home.

 As I am sharing a room with Logan Campbell (Feather weight) I had to give him a quick lecture on personal hygiene while living in close quarters.  We then ate and had a quick training at the village gym before being taken to the ceremony in which the flag bearer was announced.  This was an awesome experience and included speeches from Hamish Carter and Sarah Ulmer as well as a surprise performance by Dave Dobbyn.  We were then bussed back to the village in time to eat and watch the men’s soccer team draw with China.

High points so far have been,
- 24 hour kitchen with any food you can think of, even a MacDonald’s and all without paying! (I love being a heavy weight)
- A special key given to you that you push against any vending machine and get PowerAde, Coke or water etc
- The atmosphere in the village is electric! Thousands of athletes all at their peak ready to make dreams happen, walking around amongst each other.
- The Chinese volunteers are amazingly friendly and will do anything to help.

I had best go to bed now as we have our 1st official TKD training early tomorrow at the actual venue.

Please all keep your fingers and toes crossed for Logan, Robin and I. We all appreciate the kind words of support we received before leaving for China.

Matt Beach

Welcome at Athletes Village	Team leaving Auckland