After educating myself about Taekwondo, it was time to head up to the competition venue for the start of the Semi Finals for the Women Under 44kg and the Men Under 48kg category. By the time I cleared the security checks the competition had already started so I hurried up and got myself a good seat in the stands. I turned my attention to the fight going on and I was surprised, two of the girls fighting were quite small in size! However don't let their diminutive sizes fool you as they were full of energy as they aimed kicks and punches with each other. Their fierces screams and battle cries certainly didn't match their small bodies. The fights were really exciting and I found myself cheering for the Russian athlete VALUEVA Anastasia to win as she was really cute but fiery too with her well placed kicks. She did eventually emerge the champion at the end of the day and as she took a victory lap around the hall, the Russian delegation went crazy cheering for her.

Anastasia from Russia aiming a kick at her Turkish opponent in the Semi Finals

The Turkish girl desperately trying to fight back with mere seconds left on the clock in the final round.

The Russian delegation passionately cheering on their athlete

The boys event was somewhat less eventful though the Semi Finals were good fights, the Final match was a walkover so that was pretty disappointing for me. I thought that was pretty messed up as they did not even give a reason for the walkover and instead they announced the winner straight away. Hm which left me speculating as to why there was a walkover. Could it be due to the fact that Israel was meeting Iran in the Final and they refused to fight due to some political issues? Hm hm hm. What do you guys think?

Here are pictures from the fantastic demonstration put up by the World Taekwondo Federation team