MAY 1997 ISSUE

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

The North Island Championships just keep on getting bigger and more competitive, this year we had 273 entries compared to 260 last year.

To avoid some of the mis-matches of previous years and reduce the number of fights some of our younger members had to face in previous tournaments, we created more divisions. This year we had 60 fighting divisions, forms and smashing compared to last year's 47 fighting divisions, forms and smashing.

Although greatly increasing the cost of running the competition it made for some more interesting and closely matched competitions. The results are fully covered later in this issue in the Tournament Report prepared by Stan Wagner.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the officials, Referees, Instructors, helpers and supporters who made the North Island Championships a competitive yet friendly tournament, without your support, thee events would not be the success that they are in the Union.

No sooner had the planning and the tidying up of the North Island Championships been completed, when we received an invitation to attend a tournament in Melbourne, Australia. This is the first opportunity that the Union has had to compete against an Australian National Team rather than just competing in their regional tournaments. As this issue comes out to you, we would have already returned and a full report on the Australian trip will feature in the next issue of the Union Times.

Unfortunately, some of our fighters were not able to attend this tournament due to the short notice. The Team is: Manager/Coach Michael Hannah (New Plymouth), Heavyweight MartinCass (Karori), Middleweight Richard Lister (New Plymouth), Welterweight Andrew Hughes (Karori), Lightweight Glen Robinson (Karori), Lightweight Ewan Plant (Dunedin City), Featherweight David Aldridge (Wellington Working Mens Club), Welterweight Kristal Kingi (Lake Rotoma), Bantamweight Sonia Whitmore (New Plymouth). I'm sure you will wish this team every success in their endeavours in Melbourne on the 10^th of May 1997.

On the home front, the Union still continues to grow, with the new clubs that have joined us this month being Waiotahi, instructed by mack Edwards, Waikato University - Instructor Tracey Flintoff, Hastings Taekwondo Club - Instructor Scott Cole, Hawkes Bay Taekwondo Academy - Instructor Matthew Taare and Bay City Teakwondo Club (Napier) with Barry Hawkins.

The growth and success of the Union can be attributed to the good work of everyone spreading the message about the Union and not just the Management Committee.

Keep up the good work, train hard and be the best that you can!!!

See you at the AGM, if you can't stand that sort of excitement, I will see you in Wellington at the Nationals in June.

Michael Hannah


Return to top
http://geocities.datacellar.net/HotSprings/9758/presadd.html