Haakem's First Sparring Competition

Haakem enrolled for Taekwondo early last year and is now wearing the green belt #2 but he never actually knew the actual use of this martial art. I urged him to try out for sparring and he was chosen to represent the school for the MSSMKL Taekwondo Competition. He trained for 2 months, on Monday & Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. I wasn't hoping for him to get any medal but it was the spirit that counts.

He had to go for a motivational camping trip organised by the school the same weekend. Only 5 kids were involved in both the camping trip and the Taekwondo Competition and they would be excused a day earlier. Hubby and I fectched him from Kem Idaman Nurani Pangsun/Hulu Langat on Saturday 16th May, pushing off after dinner and Maghrib prayer. We stopped over at Tesco to get a month's provisions of bulky things (diapers, rice, oil, detergent etc.) . Haakem slept from exhaustion the whole way while Hubby slept while I did the shopping with Haakem. We arrived home at 10.00pm. I massaged Haakem to minimise potential pain as he has been doing quite a lot of physical activities during the motivational course.

We pushed off to the Stadium Badminton Cheras at 7.40am (we thought we were running late as all of us woke up quite late for Subuh).

We arrived at the Stadium before 8.00 am and Haakem joined his group for warming up sessions. We took our places at the top level of the arena.

The first duel started at 9am. Haakem's team mates didn't do well, which I believe is due to exhaustion and muscle pain from the camping trip. Haakem's turn was around 10.10am and as expected he didn't make it through the first round.

But what I admire most about Haakem was his sporting spirit. His opponent was an Indian boy from another school who was trained under the same master and getting ready for their spar, Haakem helped the boy to put on his protective gear and after their fight, they fooled around together.

Haakem wasn't disappointed for his loss and neither were we...... We went to Maluri Jusco for brunch after the match and Haakem & Hubby ordered the Johor Lamb Beriani while I had the mihun sup.

I hope Haakem will fair better next time.