Kristin, Yvette and Jens won their matches yesterday. Stian lost 2-1 in a very close fight, we thought he won. Kristin, Jens, Stian and me have fights this afternoon.

OBK has now 7 victories in this tournament! Stian and I won our finals today and Yvette, Jens and Kristin are boxing finals tomorrow. Kristin boxed better today than yesterday and beat Klara Svensson from Sweden 3-0. Tomorrow she will meet Juliana Søderstrøm, she also from Sweden. At the moment she is laying in her bed besides me (eating chocolate) and she now told me that she is going to kick her ass. Hehe..Today I meet a Finnish girl and it became a dirty match with her trying to throw me around in the ring and I heard the others from OBK shouting out “punisher her”!, but I felt that I had control the whole match through and won 3-0. It has been a good atmosphere in the team, we have cheered at each other and it has been a very nice trip.

Kristin and Yvette won their finals Sunday and OBK have now 4 gold in this tournament. Pics: Yvette, Martin & Kristin, OBK and Jens& Stian

Lotte did a beautiful job today. She worked so hard and kept her guard tight so the Russian did not get any point. 0-0 after the first round, 0-2 after second and third round, and 2-1 after the last round. It was really amazing, Lotte you are the best! I am so proud of you and I am pretty sure you will take home the gold medal.

I had a really bad day at work. My opponent, Marzia is a boxer who doesn’t like to box. In the fight she moved around and her arms were allover the place. We had a tactic that I was going to use my jab and double the attacks. We were also prepared that this was going to be a difficult fight and talked about it before the fight. I was working a lot trying to get the right distance but it was really hard because she was moving fast. When I finally got in she put her head down and tried to lock my arms. I started to get stressed and when she got a point in the third round she kept it safe. I tried my best to get even but at some point I also lost the confidence in what I was doing and I am so disappointed of myself.
It is so frustrating because I have put so much time and energy into training and of course it is not easy when you also know that you disappointed people around you that have made a lot of effort to train you and also share the same dreams.

I won my match against Romania today. I am glad that I won but tomorrow I have to box better. Before the match I felt a little bit nervous. I guess its because it’s a while since I’ve been in the ring. I started a little bit out of rhythm but after a minute or so I found the right distance. Max were not happy after the first round (his normally not very happy in the corner), anyway, the score was 3-0. I also felt that the referee was trying to get me for everything. First it was to low uppercut and then the head was to low, and then he complained about me throwing inside hock. Phuu! But short time into the second round I throw a left hock in her face and the referee counted. After counting the Romanian coach tossed a towel into the ring and they stopped the match.

Tomorrow I will box against Italy and Lotte is going to meet Russia. I am pretty sure this matches will be full time so fasten your seatbelts

Up very very early, 05.45 (but 04.45 in Norway time) to loose some weight. I only had 0.6 kg so that was piece of cake for a sweating person as me. Lotte was in weight. After sweating 30 minutes we went to the weigh in, had breakfast and then some sleeping. Max and Robert were on the drawing. As some of you probably know the drawing is important because if you loose you’re out, so we really want a good drawing.

Drawing:
In 57 kg there are 15 boxers. In the first match I will meet a girl from Romania. I have not met her before and I don’t know much about her. This fight will be tomorrow at the evening pass. If I beat her I will meet Martzia from Italy. I have met her before: in the first match in last European champ and I beat her with 1 point. She is southpaw and she box defensive (I don’t like those guys). This will be a tuff match. Then it’s the Russian in the semifinal. It was not the best drawing but if you going to win you have to beat the best.

Lotte will meet Klara today. She is Swedish and since we have spent a lot of time in head of this competition in Sweden they know each other well. Klara is taller then Lotte and have a good jab so Lotte have to be tight and try to double the attaches when she goes in. Klara have both silver and bronze from WC so this is a tuff opponent but Lotte is going to kick her ass later this afternoon.

Lotte won her match to day! Klara went into Lottes left hock and got knocked out in the third round. It was not nice and we hope she’s going to be alright.

Lets talk about the training first and then the shopping (restitution shopping).
Before I left, one of my great coaches Martin made me a very detailed training plan with two training bout’s every day (sometimes three, but that did not happen). So as you might understand this has absolutely not been a lazy summer. Of course it was very important to have a good running up to the European Champ this September.
Close to were I lived I found a training center, Fitness First, were I lifted weights (løfta skrot) at least four times a week. At this training center I also met a boxing coach, Bruce. You might say he found me though, walking around with a Norwegian boxing team t-shirt. He recommended me to train boxing at Knox Boxing in Adams Morgan. Unfortunately there were no active girls in this club but it was ok to do the bag work and all the other things that did not included sparring. Bruce also fixed some sparring with a professional girl boxer, Jennifer Salinas. She was tuff and we had some good workouts together. Bruce was very nice and very passionate about boxing and helped me a lot.

I did not get many visits from my mother country (moderlandet), only one. Cathrine and her fabulous family took me out eating pancakes and also out shopping at an outlet store outside DC. Besides this I was not much outside the red line or the J2 bus area.
I will recommend future Washington visitors to go to Montgomery mall (J2 bus end station), shopping in Georgetown, hiking in Potomac, party at Rock Bottom and try the margaritas at this Mexican place in Bethesda. I had three margaritas here and that was the record in the Buonanno lab..