There were about 400 participants: 250 men, 150 women, and 3 gweilos. The hall was a good size but there were few common areas to warm up in, so the corridors were filled with people practicing.
There were 3 arenas each with judges at the front and corners. The largest arena was for the weapons forms....
so they had enough room to swing a pole-cat. There was an exotic variety of weapons, swords, double swords, short and long staffs, nun-chucks, and spears, many accompanied by warlike cries and shrieks.
This is my classmate and 'coach' Tommy competing in the Yang? sword form.
The other 2 areas were for mens and women's tai-chi hand forms. Competitors competed 4 at a time for up to 5 minutes...
..the judges would then confer...
... and results were then posted on an electronic board. The level of competition was high and I thought I'd be lucky to repeat the feat from Bangkok of getting a silver medal - not least because there were more than 2 people in my group.
But I delivered an unsatisfying performance. My skill level has improved over the last 4 months, and I got more small details right. But this time I wasn't centered and I didn't express the fundamentals well. I also made a number of basic errors - like poor balance - and could see the judges marking me down.
This was partly because I'd chosen not to practice in the morning and pervious night (to avoid getting too tired) and I was unable to practice or warm-up at the venue. Also I hadn't started training early or frequently enough.
When the results were posted I was 3rd from bottom out of 17 competitors in my age-group for Chen tai chi with a score of 7.96.
Nevertheless this somehow earned a bronze medal. For a while I wondered whether they had awarded the medals in reverse order this year. But it seems that over 8.15 earned gold and 8.00-8.15 earned silver, with the others getting bronze. Im not sure whether there is a lower limit for bronze medals. Still Hannah was impressed by the medal.
So lessons for next time. Start training early and frequently months before the competition, ease-off in the last 1/2 week and then practice lightly on the morning. Don't rely on finding space at the venue.
