Well, it has been a very long and nerve racking couple of days. First up was Graham. While I am incredibly proud of him, I am sad for him to say that he finished just out of medal contention. Graham fought excellently and, in the match that would dictate whether he made it to the metal rounds, I am sad to say he fell just short. Honestly, I think he fell victim to electronic scoring. While he did not totally dominate the match, I think it was clear to everyone that he was the more skilled competitor. Had this match been decided by judges there is no doubt that Graham would have won. Unfortunately, his kicks just never scored with the electronic gear. Although, we have plenty of photographic evidence of good, solid kicks that should have scored. :) Regardless, he lost in the last 10 seconds of the final round to a series of punches that we are still trying to figure out.
Sydney's day started out hard as well. Her forms competition was stacked with 25 of the best girls from all around the country. She did an incredible job on her form but, unfortunately, it was only good enough to place her 11th amongst the tight competition. Still, an impressive feat considering these were the best of the best.
Sparring, however, was where things began to change. Make no mistake, none of it was easy. Every round was close and competition was fierce. There wasn't a single girl without the mojo needed to win. Sydney, however, was fierce. She went out with a fire and vigor that would lead her out of the preliminaries and into the medal rounds. Sydney would fight a tremendously hard match which would place her in third place. In the end, she lost the match 3 to 1 which would have placed her in the final gold medal match to a girl that was flatly incredible.
I felt incredibly proud of her winning the bronze at the US Junior Olympics.
It has been a long road for a little girl with stage 4 Neuroblastoma.
Who would have thought?
I am beginning to think she may have even more purpose than her father.
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