Finals is a big deal for the competitors. Everyone comes to finals to see the top athletes compete as well as to see the "event" of finals which includes demonstrations and special awards. Rather than 10 rings with action in all of them they create four rings and put them center stage (as it were).
Tika was very excited going in and she knew she could win - she just had to go in and compete like she had been all week. She was quickly up 2-1 when Emily, her competition came back with two quick scores to tie it 2-2. Tika responded right away - she was not losing - and won 3-2. Jerry, one of her coaches looked into the stands and said he could see how high I had jumped - he never thought I had that sort of vertical leap. When Jerry asked Tika if she saw how high I jumped she had said she did not but wished she had, but she did hear me throughout the entire match, even with all of the noise in the arena. I like to think she heard "Dad" through everything else :-)
Of course this is a big thing for Tika, in her 7th National Championship. This was one of her goals. It does not diminish how well her sisters did this week as well with Sam's first Silver in Team Kumite and her first time on Television. Then of course Kristen making it into the top 4 in her division for the first time ever. I was so proud of all of them.
I will post pics as soon as I get some from some of the folks that had good cameras and had good access.
Next up for them --- a couple of days in Canada with their Mom and then they are off to Junior Olympics in Detroit the end of the month.
.... cu
No comments:
Post a Comment