It was an early 5am call on the Sunday of the Labour Day long weekend for Team Acme Taekwondo as we boarded the coach to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, to take part in The Elite Taekwondo Open Championship 2016 which was held at SJKR (C) Foong Yew 5 high school.
It was a well organised event with high quality regional club competition in both poomsae and kyorugi.
The sun was shining as were our young Acme stars as we kicked off the poomsae leg of the competition securing coveted medals in all individual, pair and team events.
As midday approached, the poomsae competition came to a close. Our players had a brief respite whilst they took in the carnival like atmosphere of the day and they listened to some excellent opening ceremony speeches. Formalities concluded with a thrilling demonstration by Elite Taekwondo Malaysia and much excited applause from the crowd.
The scorchingly hot afternoon saw non-stop, fast paced kyorugi action as the crowd intensified the excitement with unbridled support for their players. This was a great learning experience for our young players as our friends over the causeway displayed exceptional fighting ability and great resilience in an environment that is far more competitive than what we are used to at Singapore club level.
As kyorugi is open to all grades from yellow belt upwards, some of our young colour belts were afforded the rare opportunity to compete and we secured commendable wins in our 6-8 year old junior female category and senior female category.
The heat of the day finally dissipated with a heavy late afternoon downpour which cleared just as we ended our outing. To our delight, Acme Taekwondo secured the Overall Champion poomsae trophy for 9-11 year olds and 1st runner up for 12-14 year olds with a team of just 19 players.
Many thanks to Elite Taekwondo Malaysia for the invitation to the event. Hope to see you all again soon!
