More from the World Games

We've had our event now. It was an amazing competition on spectacular walls.

Disappointingly, we both didn't climb as well as we would have liked. But, we did make it here and have really enjoyed climbing with the best climbers in the world. Carlie finished 9th in Lead and 11th in Speed. I finished 10th.

The finals were spectacular. The lead event was won by Japanese climber Sachi Amna in the Men's and Maya Vidmar from Slovenia in the Women's.

Sachi Amna

Maya Vidmar

The rest of the Games was a lot of fun for us too. With our climbing finished we could go and watch other sports. We saw the Aussie parachutists in action. They won bronze!

We also got to cheer on the Aussie Ultimate Frisbee team as they won a bronze medal in the main stadium.

And, we watched some amazing Acrobatic Gymnasts.

It's been an amazing experience. I can't wait to see you all on Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

The World Games Begins!

Hi Wentworth Falls,

I hope you're all having a great holiday. I'm sure it's cold over there still, but here in Taiwan it's 33 degrees. Really hot!

Carlie and I arrived in Taiwan and went to the Opening Ceremony on Thursday. It was amazing! Just like the Olympic Opening Ceremony with performances in the giant stadium, followed by the athletes walking in. Because Australia starts with A, we were the second team to enter. The noise was crazy, 50 000 people cheering in the stands! We walked with the other Australian athletes from many different sports, including Flying Disc (Ultimate Frisbee), Water Skiing, Air Sports (Parachuting), Sumo Wrestling, and Orienteering.

Waiting to enter the stadium at the Opening Ceremony

All the countries lined up in the stadium.

Carlie and I with some of the other Aussies.

After all the athletes entered and some speeches were made, there was a big concert and a massive fireworks show. It was an amazing experience.

Fireworks at the Opening Ceremony

Yesterday we went to watch some Sumo Wrestling. They are very big and strong people! We also heard news that an Australian has won our first medal! A silver medal in the Women's Orienteering. In Orienteering you have to race around a course finding your way with a map and compass. Like climbing, your have to use your brain and be amazingly fit.

Sumo Wrestling action!

Soon, we're heading out to the climbing for our first event, the speed climbing. My wife Carlie is competing so I'll be cheering her on. Go Australia!

The World Games

This July holidays, my wife and I are off to Taiwan for The World Games.

The World Games is a massive event, involving over 30 sports, including climbing! You can find out more about The World Games here:

http://www.worldgames-iwga.org/

and about the Taiwan World Games here:

http://www.worldgames2009.tw/wg2009/eng/index.php

I'll put some information on the blog for you to look at over the holidays.

Day 10 - A Buddhist Temple

The 2 main religions in China are Taoism and Buddhism. It's estimated that between 50% to 80% of Chinese people are Buddhist and that about 30% are Taoist. Many people consider themselves both.

This temple, the Jing'an Temple is in the middle of the city and is an amazing sight. The gold lions standing on a pole outside are the first indication you get of the temple's magnificence.

As you enter, the normal smells of smog and car exhaust is replaced by the fragrance of incense burning, the noise of the traffic is left behind and you can wander the buildings, taking in their splendour.

Our hotel room overlooks a school. You can see their playground in this picture. As you can see there's no grass, but there is a running track and basketball courts. On the left side you can see 6 sets of parallel bars which are used for gymnastics. No wonder the Chinese do so well at gymnastics at the Olympics!

This was our last full day in China. See you all on Monday!

Mr LeBreton

Day 9 - Tea, Trees and Towers

The Yuyuan Gardens are a big traditional Chinese garden in the middle of the old part of Shanghai. All the buildings in this area are the traditional style, it feels like you've walked into a Kung Fu movie!

We saw a man preparing tea leaves. It's different to the stuff that comes in teabags at home, it's green tea that is basically just the fresh leaves that have been worked in a bowl for a while.

This is what the leaves look like to start with:

This is the leaves being prepared:

They then put the leaves into a drink bottle add boiling water and sip it all day.

The Yuyaun Gardens are beautiful and took us a few hours to find our way through.

Water helps to create a feeling of peace and tranqility.

Chinese Gardens are created to create lots of different areas and views. It's very hard to keep you sense of direction as there are hidden paths and areas everywhere.

It was very uplifting and peaceful place, right in the middle of a huge city.

We then went to the second highest buiding in Shanghai, the Jin Mao Tower and went up to the observation Deck on the 88th floor. That's 341 metres above the ground! Two things are obvious from up there. Shanghai is very big and very smoggy.

Day 8 - Shanghai Zoo

Posing for the camera!

Shanghai Zoo is very pretty, there's lots of open grass areas and plenty of animals to see including the famous Pandas!

I always like looking at the monkeys, it reminds me of being at school!

After looking at all the animals we finished with a ride on a wild dragon rollercoaster!

Day 7 - Shopping

The markets in Shanghai are crazy! They are huge and the whole time you're being hassled by people to buy things. When you do see something you like you have to bargain with the shop-keeper. Usually you pay less than half the first price they asked!

We went to The Bund in the evening which is the riverside area in the centre of town. It's beautiful watching all the lights come on the skyscrapers. Some of the buildings are used as massive advertising signs at night, like giant movie screens.

Day 6 - Shanghai Rock Masters, continued

Me climbing much better on the second climb.

Minah and Tahlia perform tricks with the climbing wall and the skyscrapers in the background.

Minah and Tahlia with the winner of the Men's Lead competition Tomas Tauporn from Germany. Tomas and an Indonesian climber who came second in speed gave their flowers to the girls.


The sun was back out his morning so the competition was able to continue. I climbed much better today and finished 7th on this climb, and 10th overall! I was really happy with this result, up against some of the best climbers in the world. Now I can relax and enjoy the rest of our trip.

Carlie competed in the final event, the Classic Speed and climbed much better than she has so far. So we both finished happy. The finals of the Classic Speed was spectacular with a huge audience, TV cameras, spotlights, loud music and of course in China there must be huge fireworks!

Some Men's Speed Climbing action. The climber on the right is Abu Dzar from Indonseia, he came second and gave Tahlia his flowers.

Day 5 - The Shanghai Rock Masters

Today was my first day of competition. We are climbing on a 15 metre high wall which is in a park in the Financial District of Shanghai called Pudong. It's surrounded by massive skyscrapers some so high they spent a lot of the weekend in the clouds! The climb this morning was very hard, much harder than competitions in Australia, I didn't climb very well and I was disappointed to be in 14th place at the end.

The second climb was scheduled for the eventing but it started to rain so they have postponed it until tomorrow. They held the World Record Format Speed Climbing instead. In this format the climb is exactly the same wherever you go in the world. The world record was broken just last week by a Chinese climber who climbed the 15 metres in 7.3 seconds! Carlie climbed in the Speed. We don't have a wall like this in Australia yet so she had never tried it before. All of the other climbers train on this climb all the time.

One of the world's greatest climbers, Patxi Usbiago from Spain, cruised through the climb.
As I'm typing this the TV in the hotel is on the sports channel and the speed competition is on! Carlie's on Chinese TV!

Day 4 - Some photos at last!

Me with some Indonsesian climbers. The climber on my left was 2nd in the X Games, the one on my right came 4th!

I've managed to upload a few photos of our trip so far. Tomorrow is the Shanghai Rock Masters competition where I'll be climbing.

Freestyle Motocross at the X Games. These guys were also Australians.

Chinese food is making Minah stronger!

Inline blading on the half-pipe at the X Games.

Day 3 - X Games

Today was the X Games Women's climbing competition. Carlie looked really strong in the practice and went into the setting round looking confident. Unfortunately she didn't climb as well as she can and was disappointed to miss out on a place in the finals. She finished in 12th place. That's actually pretty good against all the best speed climbers in the world. The top 3 women were all from Russia, they race up the wall and are very impressive.

I'm still trying to put photos on but these computers at the hotel won't let me! I'll keep trying.

I hope everyone at school had a great holiday and that you're all working hard.

Day 2

Today we went off to the X Games to register Carlie for the climbing event. At the X Games they only have Speed climbing , which is her specialty. They were still setting up the climbing wall, the skate ramps and street course when we went in. It was amazing to see it all being put together.

Shanghai, Day 1

Our first day in Shanghai.

After a breakfast of noodles, cereal, boiled eggs, things that looked like chicken nuggets but were spicy, and toast(!) we set off to Shanghai Sports Stadium by foot and on the Metro trains. We got there eventually and saw a massive (about as big as ANZ Stadium at Homebush) stadium. All around the base are shops and in an area inside the stadium, but not in the main arena, they have a massive climbing wall. It's about 15 metres high! Carlie and I were able to have a final training session before the competitions start while Minah and Tahlia played badminton. Badminton is one of China's most popular sports, it's probably more popular here than cricket is in Australia!

For lunch we went to a restuarant called "Kung Fu"! It sounded exciting but the food wasn't too good, I think it's like the Chinese version of McDonalds.

This afternoon we went to the main shopping district but everywhere we go, Minah and Tahlia are treated like movie starts! So many people come up and talk to them (in Chinese so they can't understand anything) and lots of people keep asking to have their photo taken with them! I feel like I have taken Hannah Montana on holidays rather than my own daughters!

Tomorrow we go to register Carlie for the X Games. The girls and I get to watch and enjoy the games while she competes in the speed events. The X Games includes Skateboard, BMX, and Inline Skating as well as climbing. It should be huge!

I'll try to put some pictures on tomorrow.

Off to China

Hi 3/4LM and Mrs Masters,

We made it to Shangahi! After a long flight and an adventurous taxi ride we collapsed into our hotel beds last night exhausted. This morning we recovered with an excellent breakfast.

Now we're off to check out the local climbing walls so we can have a final train before the events. My wife competes in the X Games on Thursday in the speed climbing. You can check out how fast she's been going in training on her Blog http://www.lebretonclimbs.blogspot.com/

I'll keep you up to date on our progress.

Work hard without me!