First, I went to the board breaking ring to compete in my board breaking competition. I had to do my breaks in under 15 seconds. I went up there and set up the units to the height desired, and got ready to break. I finally finished my breaks and it turned out I did all of them with 5 seconds to spare, and with a silver medal around my neck. Now only the traditional competition, and agility would be left...
Before the match started, I was nervous beyond question. I was competing in the masters invitation, which meant I was up against everyone who had gotten gold at either districts or nationals. So, I was up against all gold medalists, me being one myself. Being the shortest person didn't exactly help the situation. All the other competitors looked fierce, but I was focused on one goal, and one goal only: that gold medal. Some of the people that I knew that went to tournament had said that they would settle for silver or for Bronze. However, to me, as soon as you lower your expectations, you prove to yourself that the goal was never important to you in the first place. I know going to world championships and having a mindset of only getting gold can seem as maybe too overconfident, but when I'm in the ring, knowing that the person I'm going against is the only thing in the way of me and that gold medal just amps me up. I was shaking and I was nervous, but I was ready...
We did forms first and then sparring. In forms, I was the 5th person to go, so far the highest score was 11 ( the highest you can get in a 15). It was my turn next and I started my form, my heart was thumping loudly, and I was out of breath. The judges then scored and guess what?!! I got a 13! And that was the highest score in the ring!! So after the sparring and the rest of the competition, the judges asked me which state and city I was from and which school, turned out, I had gotten gold!!! The judges told us that there were 2 rings with competitors the same rank and age as us in the whole championships, so the gold medalist from our ring and the gold medalist from their ring would compete in the finals. We basically had a battle for the crown of the masters invitational. After the competition, the judges had to pick either me or the other competitor, and guess what?!! All three of them picked me!!!!!! Joy overwhelmed me and tears filled my eyes! I had done it, I got gold at the masters invitational. Dinner that night and the 6 hour ride back home would be much sweeter now....
Last but not least was the agility course. We had a series of obstacles which we had to cross.
Everything was fine with me except the 7 foot high target pad we had kick, I was so close but a person my height can only kick so high until it presents a challenge. We got 3 tries, then had to move on to the next obstacle. It took everyone about 2 minutes to complete the whole thing. The highest number would get the medal. You would get 2 chances to run through it, and your best time stayed. My time was 1:17:11. I got so excited, but then I saw someone did it in 42 secs!!! I figured I wouldn't get that one..
The whole experience provided me with a stronger will to work harder for next year, 2017 world championships, I'm coming for you.....
