It is stinkingly swelteringly hot, and I don’t care if they aren’t real words. Good lord, who turned on the furnace in the venue, must be 30 - 35 in here.

Jess and Carlos are in at the same time, and at different ends of the hall, here goes…

(This happens a lot, so apologies for that lack of recording at times. And also, the matches come so fast there isn’t time to write properly, so you guys are reading it as I see it).

Jess vrs Romania.

The Romanian is very fast, super fast, and extremely fit. Bout starts slow, they are sizing up, still nothing, then Jess goes down hard, gets up slow, then goes down again. Scores with sidekick, then again, gets back in the match, then both girls go down and collide with the Romanian coach. Bout ends. Jess is behind I think, but she hasn’t given up. Scores with a punch, then again, Romanian scores with side, Jess with 2 punches, then she goes down again. Bout ends with Jess with 5 warnings. Win goes to …Romania. Jess, simply awesome.

Then she is immediately called in to ring 2…what for? Wait, she has to perform her prearranged with David less than 30 seconds after coming off the floor with the Romanian. She does it, they perform perfectly. All I can say is what a competitor she is.

Carlos vrs Guatemala

Carlos starts strong, very strong, scores with 2 side kicks straight away, Guatemala misses with return side and punch but scores with turning, then goes down. Carlos doing very well, bout ends. Both come out strong for the second round, Carlos scores with punch, I miss a bit trying to keep up with Jess’s match against Romania. Carlos scores again with side, bout ends. And the winner is…Carlos!

This is a slug fest with both going at it continuously, hard to see who is scoring what, Jeremy scores with turning, then a punch but is thrown to the ground. Gets up and again both throw heaps of punches and techniques. No backing off at all. Round ends. Round 2 is exactly the same, huge amount of techniques, especially close in punches, Ref separates them, Jeremy goes down, but gets up again. Bout ends…Win! Well done Jeremy.

Carlos has a tough one here, the Pole is lightning fast, but Carlos is quick too. Both start cautious, then Carlos goes down, gets up, another flurry, then Carlos goes down again. Gets up fast. Bout ends. Round two is similar, Carlos goes down, then scores with side, Pole gets it back and is scoring well. I think Carlos is behind, Pole scores with side again, Carlos goes down again, gets up quickly. Is still giving his best. Bout ends, and the win goes to Poland. Huge effort from Carlos.

Jeremy starts strong and is all over the Argentinean, scores with 2 fast punches, but is then forced out. He gets back in and forces the Argentinean out, scores with side, and so does the Argentinean, match gets close, hard to say who is ahead at the break. Round 2 is similar, I miss most of it covering Kane’s first round, but catch the end to see the Argentinean take it, must have been close though.

What a match! Kane starts strong, but so does the Honduran, scores with side, then goes down, gets up, scores with head, then again, awesome, The Honduran doesn’t like it at all, gets angry with coach. Kane goes down again, but is up just as quick. Round ends, Kane is ahead I think. 2^nd round, the Honduran goes down quickly, then stays down, medic comes over. He collected one of Kane’s back kicks, Ref goes to jury motioning it wasn’t excessive. Still down, Master Bos comes over, stands at sideline, then motions for the Honduran to get up and stop Hollywooding! We agree. Kane goes at him again, he starts turning his back a lot, is warned a lot. Tries to talk to the ref but he is having none of that and tells him off. Turns his back again, Master Bos is motioning for the ref to disqualify him, bout ends before ref can. Easy win to Kane!

The Polish girl is huge, big advantage for her, but Alicia doesn’t give up, and takes it to her. Both start strong, Alicia goes down, Pole is warned for kick to back. Lots of punches from the Pole, Alicia scores with a few of her own, but the Pole is very strong. Round ends. Alicia starts strong again, so does the Pole, then both go down and the Pole is warned. Lots of punches still, and Alicia takes a few big ones, then gets a couple back, she hasn’t given up, still going strong. Bout ends with a win to Poland, huge effort from Alicia, well done

Kane scores well, forced out quickly, Argentina goes down, then Kane goes down hard with a low kick, if you know what I mean! Then Amy starts against Poland and I miss the rest of Kane’s round. 2^nd round, Kane forced out, but comes back strongly, then lots of sizing up, Kane forced out again, then flurry of punches, then Kane goes down again, gets up, both score with punches, bout ends. Looked even to me but judges disagree and award the match to Argentina.

They start even but soon the Polish girl is hitting hard, lots of punches. Amy doesn’t give up at all, keeps coming back all the time, the Pole is fast too, Amy scores with side, then Pole gets it back, Amy scores with punch, then Pole gets it back, round ends. Amy starts strong and forces the Pole out, awesome! Pole scores with turning, then lots of bouncing by both, Amy holding her own, but Pole is very strong. Match ends with a punching flurry. Amy was awesome, but the Pole was just too strong.

Lots of punches from both girls, both are scoring, Siobhan scores with side and turning, excellent, then punches, then flurry of kicks and punches, Siobhan getting the worst of it. More punches, more kicks, then Siobhan goes down, round ends. Round 2 starts with another furious trade off, the Canadian is very strong and experienced, but Siobhan isn’t giving up, then the Canadian goes down. More punches to Canada, but Siobhan still punching back, not giving up, Siobhan goes down again, then bout ends. Excellent work from Siobhan, but the Canadian is just too strong.

Alicia is first, calmly sets up the knifehand, the side and turning, then proceeds to demolish them all with perfect technique, an awesome display. Then Jess steps up, and repeats Alicia’s efforts exactly the same. Another great display from the girls, and has to put them in the medals! Then Candice has her turn. She powers through the knifehand easy, then the side just as easy, but the kick is disallowed as she rocked too far back and took 2 steps. She misses the turning, just not striking it hard enough.

Both come out hard, Pole is slightly bigger, Josh goes down, but gets up again quickly. Both scoring with punches, but the Pole is slightly faster, Josh scores with a side kick, Pole gets it back, then Josh goes down again. Not much in it, lots of single techniques. Round ends. Second is similar, but gets harder quickly, lots more flurry’s and breaks, both are going for it but I think the Pole is ahead again. Josh forced out again, then bout ends. Josh did well, but win to Poland.

Both start strong, lots of kicks and punches. I have to try and watch 2 rings and power! Gary goes down, but up again quickly, then forced out, scores with reverse, then Argentina scores with turning, close match. Bout ends. Round two is still strong from what I can see, but I am missing a lot of it. Argentina scores 3 points as Gary exits ring and drops his guard. Bout ends. Must be close but the win goes to Argentina

Shane is taller, both are awesome fast, neither giving an inch. England scores with side, Shane with punches, turning, England with reverse turning, Shane goes down with low kick to you know where. Slow up, but ok. Scores with punches, goes down again, another low kick, England is fouled. Shane scores 3 points, then down again with excessive kick again low! England fouled again. Bout ends. Then ridiculously the match ends, the ref and judges and jury all think it is the second round. The England coach is furious, and so is Dan. They realise their mistake after a meeting and the match starts again. No excuse for this really. Shane starts strong again, so does England, then I miss a lot while trying to watch Gary and the girls power breaking. When I look back, Shane is down again, not sure why. Lots of discussion with the ref and jury, then Shane is helped off the floor to the medic, they approve him and he returns. Soon after is hit hard again, and goes down. More discussion...England is fouled out, and they aren’t happy. Neither is Shane, I can see he doesn’t want to win by fouls. English supporters are whistling and booing, so are a lot of other teams, but the decision holds. England make a submission to Master Bos later, not sure of the outcome yet. More to come here, watch this space.

Sam Campbell, gets the punch easily, and also the knifehand, I miss the rest due to Shane going to the medic, but Sam has nailed the sidekick, missed the turning, and nailed the reverse. Brilliant!

Josh’s turn, he gets the punch and the knifehand, but misses the rest, bummer.

Then Johs steps up to the holders, and I was able to watch this. He nails the punch, then the knifehand, then the side, then the turning. We are all yelling, he only has to get the reverse to be in for what has to be gold, and Yes! A complete sweep, he is ecstatic and so are the team, especially Dave B who gets very emotional, as do a lot of the boys. Awesome, only one so far to break all, but it’s not over yet!

Candice starts strong, easily out punching her opponent, she takes charge of the centre, and keeps it. Lots of flurry’s of punches followed by kicks. She is faster than Puerto Rico and more committed, scores beautiful 3 pointer, Puerto Rico holding a lot. Round ends. 2^nd is a repeat of the same, although Puerto Rico gets 3 pointer, Candice gets it back immediately with 2 punches and kick, this should be a victory for Candice, and the judges agree, Yes!

Ok NZ, this is where it got really interesting. Jess, Alicia and Canada have a break off for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd in the power breaking, at the same time, Chris starts sparring Canada, Candice starts sparring Argentina, and Thomas starts sparring Argentina. How the heck are our 3 coaches going to do this, well they get Mr Burr to second Thomas as he is the last to start, and there is no other choice. I’m sorry, but I cannot take notes, as I can’t watch 4 events at the same time so I will just have to give you the results.

Alicia wins gold for NZ in power! Jess has 3 rounds with Canada, but finally loses in a turning kick kick-off and gets bronze. Chris is beaten by Canada, Candice is beaten by Argentina, and Thomas is beaten by Argentina as well. All matches are spellbinding but my notes are useless! You guys should be here! The team are also split trying to cover the 4 events together, but they do their best. Doug’s camera also goes down in between it all, and he rushes up the steps to change the card.

So, there you go!

Sam starts strong, in charge, pushes USA out straight away, takes the centre of the ring and keeps it. Punch flurry, followed by kicks, USA pushed out again. More punches, then USA pushed out again. Bout ends, round 2 is much the same, Sam is in control, USA not giving up, but has no real answer, and the victory is all Sam’s!

By the way, it’s now 7pm, and we are still going. Jess and David are about to take the floor again for their prearranged, and it looks like Sam is about to get back in the ring soon.

Sam is back in the ring not 10 mins after his last fight, against the Pole. The Pole takes charge and pushes Sam out 5 times with lots of pushing kicks and punches. Sam fights back, but the Pole is very strong. Round 2 is better for Sam, he fights stronger, and knocks the Pole down , but he gets up straight away and pushes Sam out another 2 times. Sam is good, but the win goes to Poland.

David and Jess are back in the ring again, after Canada. It is these two teams without doubt that are leading the prearranged. Canada are more acrobatic, but NZ are more technical. Master Bos claps strongly for both, smiling, but he is not the judge, or judges in this case as there are 5 of them.

And with that, our day was suddenly over. All that remained was to leave the venue, and see what the bus driver had in store for us, music wise. Yeah! The Chillies…no, wait, they are removed quickly to be replaced with…Spanish rap music!!

Tomorrow the guys and girls collect their medals in the morning, then all the finals.

Doug & myself would like to say, what an awesome team, and what coaching, management, and support. Thanks so much to all of you at home for your messages, they mean so much to us here.

More medals are due tomorrow, not sure what colour, but rest assured we will let you know as soon as possible.

One last thing to do, a message from the twins.

One extra last thing to do is the photo that was in the paper of the boys, see below