2008 Junior Pan American Championships

Santiago, Chile - September 4th - 7th

Sunday, September 7th - 10:00 pm

Today was the last day of competition.  It was a little better day for Team USA, but not much.  The team won four more golds, two silvers, and several bronze medals.  Mexico won the overall medal count, with Brazil second and the US third.  This is disappointing because the US had won the highest medal count for the last two years.

Matthew was up first for Kastu Dojo.  He won his first match and sparred well.  He then went to the finals and lost in a close match to win silver.  I don't remember the countries he competed against or the scores right now.  He did not spar as well in the finals.

Anisha was our last competitor.  Anisha went against Peru in the first round.  She did a good job of fighting defensively, but the girl from Peru scored a head punch.  Anisha was not able to recover and lost 0 - 1.  The girl from Peru than lost to the girl from Mexico that would go on to win the gold medal.  That knocked Anisha out of medal contention.

So overall we have Matthew with silver and Tyler with bronze.  Everyone did pretty well, but could have done better.  Hopefully we can learn from this experience to be better next year.  I will post some videos of Matthew and Tyler when I get home this week.  Our plane is scheduled to leave for Miami at about 8:00 pm tomorrow night.  I am not sure if we will be held over due to Hurricane Ike.  I really hope not because I am looking forward to coming home.  Thank you all for your support and we will see you when we get back!

Saturday, September 6th - 9:50 pm

Today was the second day of competition.  It was not a great day for Team USA.  The team won two gold medals, a silver, and a few bronze medals today.

Natasha was up first for Katsu Dojo and went against a girl from Puerto Rico.  The match was tied 3 - 3 and went to overtime.  The girl from Puerto Rico managed to score a head kick on Natasha in overtime to win the match.  That same girl then lost her second match which meant Natasha was out of medal contention.

Dillon was up second for Katsu Dojo and was against a boy from Canada.  Dillon was down by three points, but landed a head kick to tie the match at 3 - 3.  Then unfortunately, Dillon step out of bounds for the second time late in the match which gave the boy from Canada a one point lead at 3 - 4.  Dillon was not able to recover and lost his match.  The boy from Canada then lost his second match to a really good fighter from Venezuela.  That also put Dillon out of medal contention. 

Tyler was up last for us.  She also had a girl from Puerto Rico in her first match.  It was not an eventful match, but Tyler was able to win the match 2 - 1 with two center punches.  Next she fought a girl from Canada.  Nothing much happened in the first minute, but the Canadian girl scored one center punch on Tyler then pretty much just avoided her the rest of the match.  Tyler was not able to reach the girl so lost 0 - 1.  Fortunately, that was the semi-final match which put Tyler into repechage.  This time Tyler sparred to her full potential and beat a girl from Chile 8 - 0.  That gave Tyler a bronze medal.

The whole US team has looked off this week.  Hopefully, Anisha and Matthew will be more successful tomorrow.  I tried to upload a video, but it will take several hours and I don't have enough internet time.  It will have to wait until I get home.  I didn't take any pictures today.  I will have a final post tomorrow night.

Friday, September 5th - 9:00 pm

Well, today was the first day of competition.  The arena is an industrial steel structure with no heat.  The temperature today was in the forties, so needless to say it was really really cold.  It was the most cold I have ever been at a tournament.  The competitors seemed to take it in stride.  There are about 18 countries represented at the games from all over the Western Hemisphere.

Team USA won two bronze medals today.  One in the 12-13 year old female kata division and one in 18 - 20 year old male team kumite division.  Anisha was able to spar one match in the US Team 18-20 year old female division.  She lost her match 2 - 0 against a girl from Canada.  Anisha did really well despite the loss.  It was good for her to have a warm-up match before she spars in her individual matches on Sunday.  We now know what we need to work on.

Tyler, Natasha, and Dillon spar tomorrow.  Tyler and Natasha have eight girls total in their divisions and both start against Puerto Rico.  I did not get a chance to look at Dillon's chart.  I will try to post some videos tomorrow night.  I won't be able to post them all because it would be too time consuming.  I have posted some pictures below from the event today.

Thursday, September 4th - 9:30 pm

I finally received a schedule from the US coaches.  Below is when our kids are scheduled to compete.  The time refers to their weight class, not necessarily them individually.

3:00 pm - Friday, September 5th       -  Anisha will spar with the US Females in the Team matches

3:00 pm - Saturday, September 6th  -  Dillon will spar in his individual weight class

4:00 pm - Saturday, September 6th  -  Tyler and Natasha will spar in their individual weight classes

9:00 am - Sunday, September 7th     -  Matthew will spar in his individual weight class

11:00 am - Sunday, September 7th   -  Anisha will spar in her individual weight class

The two athletes that make it to the final round in each division will be held over for the Finals that night.  The finals begin at 7:00 pm on Friday and 6:00 pm on Saturday & Sunday.  I will not be able to post any updates until late each night.  We probably will not get a chance to return to the hotel until the finals are over.  I will do my best to post the videos of the matches on YouTube with direct links.  Wish the kids luck!

I have posted a couple more pictures from this afternoon.  The city picture is a look at a major intersection outside my hotel window.  Surprisingly, the walls are well insulated because I barely hear it.

Thursday, September 4th - 12:00 pm

Hello all.  Sorry about the intermittent updates.  We have been having a real problem with the internet connection at the hotel and I can't always log on to upload the updates.  Yesterday was a pretty uneventful day.  The team had two practices and I went on a bus tour of the city with Mrs. Moghadam (aka Natasha's mom). 

The team just weighed in this morning and everyone made their weight. 

The tournament is scheduled to begin on Friday with all of Kata and the Team matches.  Tyler and Natasha are scheduled to spar on Saturday.  Matthew and Anisha are scheduled to spar on Sunday.  We are not sure yet when Dillon is suppose to spar, but I assume it is going to be on Saturday.

I posted some pictures below.  The city pictures are the view of Santiago from Tyler's room.  I will try to get more pictures up when the internet cooperates.

Wednesday, September 3rd - 8:15 am

Hello all!  Well, we made it to our hotel in Santiago safely with no problems.  We left Monday from Gainesville at about 9:00 am and arrived at Miami International Airport at 4:00 pm.  Our flight did not leave until 11:15 pm, so sat in the airport until we met the US Team at the gate.  The flight lasted about 8.5 hours and we landed at the Santiago Airport at 8:15 am Tuesday morning.  Everyone basically slept on the plane, so the time went by pretty quickly.  The time here is the same as Gainesville which is really nice.

The Santiago Airport is really nice.  Much nicer than Miami International.  The team exited the plane, went through customs, and then pick up their check-in luggage.  The airport security has dogs that just walk around in the baggage claim area sniffing bags.  It was really funny to see the team kids reactions when the dogs would stop and sniff their luggage.  A security guard would then inspect their bag.  The dog was sniffing the snacks they had inside.

After everyone went through customs, they boarded a bus that took them to the hotel.  It is about 18 miles from the airport to downtown Santiago.  The ride to the hotel was a real eye opener to the differences in wealth in this country.  Even though the airport was really nice with state of the art equipment and facilities, it didn't take long to see the other end of the spectrum.  About half way to the hotel, we passed the extremely poor area.  There were several neighborhoods that were just shacks made of corrugated metal, typical to what you would see in a third world country.  As we got closer to the city, the conditions started to improve.  The city is a mix of old and new buildings, with a lot of new construction.

The team then arrived at our hotel which is the Radisson Plaza Santiago.  It is a really nice hotel.  The team kids received their room assignments, had their first team meeting, and then went to their rooms.  At noon yesterday, the team met in the lobby to go and exchange currency and walk to the grocery store for supplies.  The currency here is the Chilean Peso.  One American dollar is worth 500 Pesos.  It takes some getting used to seeing something like a bottle of water cost $1000. 

After they got back from the grocery store and ate lunch, they left for their first US team practice.  It lasted about 2 hours.  They then returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  After dinner they had some free time until their 10:00 pm curfew.  Most kids were so tired by that point that they went right to sleep.  The team met this morning for at 7:00 am for breakfast.  They have a scheduled practice for 10:00 am this morning.

That pretty much sums it up to this point.  They should have weigh-ins sometime today.  They still do not know the event schedule for the rest of the week.  I will post it as soon as I know.  I will have another update tonight after dinner with more pictures.  Until then!