Island Taekwon-Do Centre was invited to take part in the 2008 ITF Victorian Championships, a 1-day tournament held in Melton, Australia, held on the 9th of March.

On the 9th, upon reaching Melton, we were greeted with a chilly morning and blazing sunlight. The floor was still rather cold – I think it made skipping easier. We did our warm-ups and stretching outside the Melton Recreation Centre. The competition soon commenced. All the participants were quickly assembled in the Melton Recreation Centre on the mat in rows, and were briefed on the programme for the day.

The Senior Category for Individual Patterns for Blue to Red Belts, was up first. The rest of the team excitedly echoed my name to report, along with well wishes.

The Senior and Junior categories for Male Individual Patterns, Black Belts, came quickly, where Shaun and Jeremy, and Jieming, Zhao Qi, and Jonathan Sim put to test our efforts of preparation for this moment.

After everyone finished their Patterns events, we gathered to practise Yul-Gok for our Senior Team Pattern event, with guidance by Sir and Shaun.

After all the sparring, special techniques and power events had finished, all the participants were gathered around the perimeter of the ring. The Weapons Demonstration event commenced and we each took our turns to compete in our respective Junior and Senior Weapon Patterns event.

In a blink of an eye, the competition was already over! Master Muleta gave a short but meaningful speech and debrief after prize presentations. Jieming and Zhao Qi came in 1st and 2nd in their Patterns event, Shaun 3rd in his, while I took the 2nd place for mine. Jieming and Shaun also came in first in their Weapons Demonstration events. Also, our team came in 3rd in the Team Patterns, comprising of Jeremy, Jonathan, Jieming, Zhao Qi, and myself. We were presented with our trophies and medals and were happy to end a rather eventful day, but not before a group photograph.

We took a short rest before dressing up for our dinner with Master Muleta at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. All of us were very honoured to have dinner with Master Muleta himself, and some were obviously shy when he extended his friendly nature when talking to them! We enjoyed our time chatting over dinner, and would have been chased out of the restaurant if we stayed any longer. We said our farewells after a group photograph and some autographs, grateful for the opportunity to get to know Master Muleta personally.