Day 1 Report - Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF)
By Graham Underwood
All of the Australian Taekwondo Team arrived at the AYOF athletes village
on Tuesday. We are all accommodated at Sydney University in the student
Hall of Residence. The buildings are all very old and steeped in tradition
(most look like they are straight out of Harry Potter!).
In the afternoon all Australian Sport Teams were required to attend a
Drugs in Sport briefing. Many past Olympians were present and gave their
view on how they felt about the topic. The video presentation commenced
with Australian Taekwondo Olympian, Daniel Trenton, giving his thoughts
which gave us all a boost.
Today we had morning training at the competition venue at the Sydney Olympic
Park Sports Hall which allowed everyone the opportunity to get used to
the venue. Representative from Adidas (Germany) were at the training venue
with their new electronic hogus and team members from all countries had
an opportunity to try them out. These hogus are only slightly heavier
than the standard shields and are adjustable for impact scoring sensitivity.
The sensitivity can be varied, on screen via their software, for different
weight divisions.
The rest of the day was focused on the Opening Ceremony with all teams
leaving the accommodation venue and traveling to Darling Harbour for a
very impressive ceremony. We were all proud to see one of our team members,
Erin Wakefield, selected to be one of the Olympic Flag bearers.
Of course the logistics of moving all the athletes to and from the accommodation
was very complex and meant some long delays. We eventually returned to
the venue at about 9:45pm for a light supper and lights out.
Testing Adidas Electronic Hogus
Behind The Scenes of the Adidas Electronic Hogus
Early Morning Coffee in front of AYOF Accommodation
