Sweet! I'll use (by necessity) one of those swords housed within a cane for the cutting competition. I'll hobble out with the aid of my cane, unsheathe the sword from it, cut the poles, resheathe, and hobble back.

Was not aware there was a 'mature' division.
Had I known there was a mature division, I would have been more inclined to go. I was not interested in competing against 20 year olds.
Age and treachery can only get you so far in some contests.....

I keep waiting for the "old Fart" division...alas.

yeah, me too.
Sooner or later there will be enough of us over 50 to have a category for us, too.
Perhaps it could be the 'silver' division or something...or perhaps the AARP division.....

How about "executive senior" .

I have to admit: 'Executive Senior' sounds better than 'Old Fart'

Well, i can tell you how i did, which was not as good as i had hoped.

In bamboo cutting i got knocked out in the first round. I hit two of the three required cuts and Master Tysoe of Australia nailed all three clean, he advanced and i got a Gold medal, i have been refering to this place as either first place AFTER the winner or First runner up (nice version) or first loser (not so nice version). Master Tysoe ended up passing through the second round and competing in the finals, I believe taking a bronze statue.

In forms, i made it to the second round and got eliminated by Master Javier (sorry cant think of his last name) from Spain. I took first runner-up, again. He was in the finals with A Master from Germany (again sorry no name), Master Jenko from the US and Master Goodwin from Canada. A very international group. That group then went to compete in the finals against the winners from the Korean divisions. Master Jenko took home the Gold Statue, first place. He performed extremely well and had to have only been beaten by the slimmest of margins for Samurang.

So thats my story, two gold medals at the world championships. I have sent a letter to Wheaties to see about an endosement deal. I am holding my breath, cuz i know they will contact me shortly. The other thing is i need more training. Alot more training.

When the video of the demos is posted everyone should watch, they were amazing.

Thanks for the play-by-play, John!!! Congrats on getting as far as you did!

John, you competed in the World Championships, that's something to be proud of Temperature, time difference...they can all make it challenging for competitors. And you have this experience to fuel your training while you prepare you for 2008

Congrats, John! BTW, those gold medals you won are made of real gold, ya know. I hope you're wearing those babies around your neck while you're out and about displaying your bling bling. Keep one as a necklace and mount the other onto a gold band for some serious Mac Daddy hand bling!

Damon Goodwin got 3rd overall, in the finals with the Koreans.

What about demonstrations? What did you see? Anything new? I can't wait to get a look at them! I wonder if they will release a VCD like they did in 2002...

Awesome! Congradulations Mr Goodwin!

I was eliminated in the preliminary round in forms and received a bronze medal.

In bamboo cutting, I won the preliminaries in the female division and placed third in the finals receiving a bronze statue.

It was an awesome and humbling experience all at the same time.

Wow!!! Congrats to you, Jennifer!

And you were scaried stiff were you . But Great job Kyosahnim Jen. Looks like the videos helped.