Alright, we had a great performance on Tuesday, Jake (Herbert) wrestled superb to get a silver. He put together a really good day, he wrestled smart (which includes knowing when to bail out, or give up a 1 instead of 3), and was so close to winning it all. The finals was brutal as you can watch from TheMat.com, one push out, stalling for 3 1/2 minutes and then to the ball. I think the whole day was a good learning experience for Jake.
Tervel wrestled to his potential as well, he knows he belongs on the world stage. He was not at all satisfied with 3rd, so you know he's going to work hard to come back and will some big tournaments. That and you know Mocco will be pushing him to stay in top form.
Bunch pulled out of a mo
ve he didn't need to hit, so if anyone will be learning from Tuesday, it will be Shawn. He hit a great blast double, and could have won that match. Check out the photos, the Bulgarian tries a back flip and lands on his face, that was pretty funny in a very not funny moment.Schlatter had a tough guy in Kumar, but was totally in the match all the way through.
Clarissa (Chun) had a cream puff in the first round, I heard that the Singapore program is just getting off the ground, so there are some sick shots of Clarissa tossing the girl around. She then hit a stud in the 17 year old North Korean. Dang, that first ankle pick was so quick. (I have no idea how I got that shot.) How do you scout a 17 year old North Korean? Chun can keep her chin high, she wrestled hard and was working with a blown shoulder. She's a tough kid.
Medina wrestled well in her first match, but hit the eventual champ who was wrestling like she knew she was going to win. Mattson is great, and cute, it's like mixing a tough Russian with a gymnast. I have some awesome shots of Medina and Mattson during the day.
SHOOTING
I'm definitely starting to dial-in and get in a groove. I'm shooting from the stands, which puts me on a great level with the mat and I can sit most of the day, while the suckers on the floor have to stand and hold their gear head-high. I found a great secret spot to shoot Mat D from. The stands should be pretty wide open tomorrow as it's the one day with all women. Unfortunate but true.
Thankfully, they stopped the smoke bombs for the finals, they are just blasting some sparks and flames, which puts out a bit of haze, but not nearly as bad as Monday and Tuesday. The smoke is why the Tuesday finals are all tweaked out, I have to crank the blacks in post to eliminate the smoke. I'm settling in at 3200k (super cold due to the yellow mats and red lights), 750 s, 3.3 f, 4000 ISO. Two sets of shots will go up today.
SOCIALBest social night ever, it got going late, but into the bar walks Herbert and about 15 others wrestlers and coaches, then we move across the street and the place is PACKED with USA Wrestling folks, wall to wall. The Paulson twins did their best to get us all tossed out (Trent started pouring his own Jack), but someone plunked down a bunch of bills and the bartender stayed open until three. It was so cool, I actually had a conversation with John (Smith). Total pay off for all the hard work to hang with the country's elite athletes, coaches and directors.
It was a long two days, but so much fun...And so much more to come.
Tony
PS: This 1pm start time is SO civilized! It's great to have a nice relaxing, rested morning. We need to do this in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment