National Collegiate Taekwondo Association
Team
2011 Universiade: Day 6 of Competition
0The final competition day (and fourth of sparring) saw the two bantamweights, Aziza Chambers (team captain) and Stepfon Westbrook, and the two middleweights, Blanca “Jenny” Quezada and Jared Reed on the competition floor. First up in the ring was Chambers (53 kg, University of Dayton).
She faced Melanie Hartung, an experienced fighter from Germany. Chambers handily won her first match with a score of 7-1 to get into the round of 16. She then faced down Wassam Khaldi of Algeria 9-1. Khaldi also competed in the preliminary round of the women’s Individual poomsae competition. That win took Chambers into the quarterfinals against the Chinese Taipei fighter, Iwen Kuan. This was a familiar situation for Chambers as she fought the Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals at the 2009 Universiade. In Shenzhen, it was Chambers who was victorious scoring the winning point of the close match late in the third round to win 6-5. In the semifinals Chambers faced Hatice Kübra Yangin, Turkey. Yangin is the 2010 Collegiate Worlds and European champion and a bronze medalist at the 2011 World Championships. Yangin won the semifinal 10-5 and went on to beat Laura Urriola Ateca of Spain, 9-0 in the final.
Next up was Stepfon Westbrook (63 kg, California State University-Northridge). Westbrook was bracketed against Alpheus Shiba Mkhonazi of South Africa. Westbrook bested Mkhonazi 5-3 and went on to face Alexander Nikiforov of the Russian Federation. Nikiforov took the match 6-3 but then lost to Umut Bildik, the eventual champion, in quarterfinals. Westbrook’s win was the first for an American male bantamweight at a Universiade.
Jenny Quezada (73 kg, Arizona State University) was up against Frenchwoman, Anne Caroline Graffe. Although Quezada remained strong in the match, Graffe prevailed with an 8-1 win. Graffe walked over Burenbaatar Tuyasaikhan of Mongolia 8-0 in the quarterfinals and then lost to Mi Yeon Park of South Korea, the silver medalist. Chia-Chia Chuang won the division as she had the previous year at the WUTC in Vigo, Spain.
Jared Reed (87 kg, American River College) faced the winner of the Saudi Arabia (Faisal Al-Matrafi) and Iran (Rouhollah Talebi Kahangi) match. Al-Matrafi was a no show, so Talebi Kahangi advanced to face Reed in the round of 32. Talebi Kahangi is the 2007 & 2009 Collegiate World welterweight champion and the 2009 Universiade champion at that weight as well. He posted a win over Reed with a 10-2 score. Talebi Kahangi beat Slovakia (Dorde Marcetic) in the quarterfinals, but then he fell to Yong Hyun Park of South Korea in the semi-finals. Park went on to win men’s middleweight.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
– Rex Hatfield, Men’s Team Manager
2011 Universiade: Day 5 of Competition
0The third sparring day’s action featured the Lightweight and Heavyweight divisions with USA athletes Alex Ahlstrom (M-LW) Jennifer Daye (F-LW), Stephen Lambdin (M-HW) and Danielle Harrison (F-HW).
Alex Ahlstrom opened the day with a close match against Spain’s Raul Martinez Garcia. The match went point for point with Ahlstrom leading until a third round spin-roundhouse bonus point score by Spain. Final score was 5-4 Spain.
Jennifer Daye took on Switzerland’s Nina Klay. The match remained scoreless through the first round, despite strong punches by Daye. Klay scored a single body-shot for a 1-0 victory over the USA.
Danielle Harrison in Women’s Heavyweight fought China’s Yongtong Zhang in a dead-even matchup. Harrison remained the aggressor through regular time which ended in a 2-2 score to force overtime. In the overtime round neither fighter scored a clean point and the judges resorted to ROS (Rules of Superiority). Local favorite Zhang took the judges’ decision.
USA’s veteran heavyweight Stephen Lambdin also fought China in the first round. China’s Yi Zhang seemed no match for Lambdin’s repeated clean scores. After an unsuccessful video review by China, the judges questioned the functionality of the Lajust PSS system and brought in a Lajust technician after an obvious clean body shot failed to register. After testing the system, scoreless kicks continued to a 0-0 regular time finish. Lambdin landed a resounding early fast-kick which failed to register a touch, followed by an inexplicable counter-point by China’s Zhang who won 1-0. Zhang was eliminated in the next round in another scorelsss match against Turkey who won by judges Rules Of
Superiority. Turkey continued through to the gold medal match.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
– Alex Antipa, Team Manager
2011 Universiade: Day 4 of Competition
0The second day of Kyorugi competition featured USA Fly-weights Jazzmyn Paguirigan and Tyler Sawyer in the early matches followed by welter-weights Tasha Pruter and Phillip Yun. Paguirigan opened the day on a positive note with a hard-fought win against Chinese Mongolia. USA was the aggressor in a tight 1-1 match going into round-3. After giving up a defensive point to go down 1-2, Paguirigan kept up the pressure and fought back to an exciting late round come-back 4-3 win, advancing to the round of eight where she eventually lost 0-5 to Turkey. USA’s Tyler Sawyer took on Portugal’s Braganca. Sawyer was giving up nearly 8 inches in height to Portugal whose defensive cut-kick proved too much for the USA. Saywer lost 1-3. Braganca was silver at 2011 Worlds in Korea.
USA’s Phillip Yun wowed the Chinese crowd with his first match win over Germany’s Sebastian Lehman. Yun/Lehman match was a nail-biter with Yun scoring a variety of techniques including punches during regular time. In overtime, USA timed a perfect counter punch against a race attack for a 5-4 win. Team Leader Hanwon Lee had both the USA and Chinese fans roused into thunderous chants of “USA-JAIO, USA-JAIO” in what turned into one of the best early round crowd pleasers. In the round of 16, Yun used his speed, aggression, and excellent ring-management to defeat Mexico’s Sergio Gurrola 6-1. Yun advanced into the quarter finals to take on Morocco. Narrowly missing a blazing jump-spin heel kick that would have tied things up, Yun lost to Morocco 4-9, who went on to finish bronze.
USA’s Tasha Pruter opened the female welter division with a domination 10-0 win over Benin. Pruter, a freshman from University of Missouri, KC used cut-kick/head-shot combos to control the entire match, frustrating her opponent and advancing to the quarter-final round. Using the same tactics, Tasha fought a close match against Korea’s Seu Mi Woo but eventually lost 1-2 in a hear-breaker.
Team spirits were high following today’s action. Under the leadership of Dr. Russell Ahn, Head Coach Tim Ghormley, and leaders Hanwon Lee and Alex Antipa met with Korea’s Collegiate Federation Director Hwan-Sun Lee, Executive Director Chung-Young Lee, and Secretary-General Eun Seok Park to discuss next year’s Collegiate Championships, future exchanges with the USA and growth of collegiate Taekwondo.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
– Alex Antipa, Team Manager
2011 Universiade: Day 3 of Competition
0On day 3 of Taekwondo competition at the World University Games, the first sparring competitors of the US National Collegiate Taekwondo Team went into action.
Shaina Krause (George Mason, 57 kg) had the best result of the day, reaching the quarterfinals and narrowly missing the medal rounds. In her first match, Krause fought Iloki Brutho of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She scored with a front leg axe kick early in the match to go up 3-0, and also a defensive back kick to break it open in the third round and win convincingly 6-2. In the quarterfinal round Krause met a Russian player. In a tightly contested defensive match, neither player scored until late in the match when the Russian player scored a short round kick to the body. Krause mixed it up but ran out of time. The final score was 1-3 for the Russian player. Krause was coached by head coach Tim Ghormley.
Jensen Ishida (University of Hawaii-Manoa, 68 kg) fought Breno Silva of Brazil in his first match. He scored early in the 1st round to go up 1-0 and Brazil returned with a back kick to go up 2-1. Ishida and Silva traded body round kicks throughout the match to tie 3-3 and send the match into overtime. After some tense exchanges, Ishida was able to score on a body round kick to advance 3-3 (1-0). In his second match, Ishida fought Cesar Mari Puerta of Spain. He scored a defensive back kick to go up 2-1 in the first round but gave up a couple of head shots to go down 7-2. Ishida sparred aggressively for the rest of the match but couldn’t close the gap. Ishida was coached by coach Steve Rosbardsky.
Adrian Zambrano (Glendale Community College, 54 kg) fought Weiji Tian of China in his first match. He was leading 1-0 for much of the match, but Tian was able to pull head 2-1 in the third and final round and hold the lead. Zambrano was coached by coach Steve Rosbardsky.
Katherine Trinh (University of California, Berkeley, 46 kg) fought Anastasia Valueva of Russia in her first match. It was a close match early on 4-3 but Valueva was able to break away on some head kicks. Trinh stayed aggressive and attacked throughout the match but fell 6-16 to the Russian. Trinh was coached by coach Reynaldo Soriano.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
– Dan Chuang, Poomsae Coach
2011 Universiade: Day 2 of Competition
0Day 2 of competition continued for the US Collegiate National Team with men’s team, women’s team and mixed pair poomsae competition.
Representing the United States in the men’s team division was Long Nguyen (San Jose State, hometown San Jose, CA), Rocky Cao (De Anza College, hometown San Jose, CA )and Alvin Jong (De Anza College, hometown San Jose, CA). Nguyen, Cao and Jong automatically advanced to the semifinals, where they placed an impressive 7th overall by performing Koryo and Keumgang to advance to the final round. In the finals, they competed with Taebaek and Pyongwon and earned 7th place overall for the tournament for the poomsae team’s highest finish of the tournament.
The women’s team division was represented by Rene Chen (Rhode Island School of Design, Medford, MA), Erika Lee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hometown Cambridge, MA) and Carissa Fu (Princeton University, hometown New York, NY). The women’s team performed Taeguek 8 and Koryo, giving a strong performance in the semifinals. They finished 9th, just 1 place shy of the finals by a margin of 0.08 points.
The mixed pair division was represented by Chen and Brandon DeSouza (University of Massachusetts, Lowell, hometown Lowell, MA). Chen and DeSouza performed Keumgang and Taebaek in the semifinals, placing 13th overall but falling shy of the finals round.
Today concludes the poomsae portion of the Taekwondo competition at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China. The poomsae coach for the team was Dan Chuang. “Overall the team performed very well, reaching the finals in 2 out of the 5 divisions in a very competitive field,” said Chuang. “Worldwide, the level of the emerging discipline of poomsae competition has been rising fast over the past several years, and this year was no exception.”
Tomorrow, sparring competition begins. Representing the US are Katherine Trinh (University of California, Berkeley, 46 kg), Adrian Zambrano (Glendale Community College, 54 kg), Shaina Krause (George Mason, 57 kg), and Jensen Ishida (University of Hawaii-Manoa, 68 kg).
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
– Dan Chuang, Poomsae Coach
2011 Universiade: Day 1 of Competition
0Competition for Team USA Taekwondo kicked off today at the World University Games with the Taekwondo Poomsae event. Competing on the day were Rene Chen, who represented the US in the women’s individual category, and Ryan Lien, who represented the US in the men’s individual competition. The caliber of the competition was very high, with many former world championships medalists in the draw.
Rene Chen (Rhode Island School of Design, Medford, MA, women’s individual) competed in the preliminaries, performing Taeguek 5 and Taeguek 6. Chen was 11th in the standings going into the semifinals, where she performed Taeguek 8 and Koryo, which bumped her up to an impressive 6th place going into the finals. In the finals, Chen performed Keumgang and Taebaek. A couple of missteps on Keumgang dropped her to an overall finish of 8th place, but it was an impressive run and the best result for a US female individual poomsae competitor at a world collegiate event.
The other person to go today was Ryan Lien (Mt. San Antonio College, San Gabriel, CA, men’s individual), our men’s individual. He had a tough draw and had to go first but performed well regardless. Lien advanced to the semifinals with Taeguek 7 and 8, but placed 16th in the semis with Koryo and Keumgang, and didn’t advance to the finals.
Competition continues tomorrow with the women’s team poomsae, men’s team poomsae and mixed pair poomsae divisions.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
– Dan Chuang, Poomsae Coach
2011 Universiade
0The US National Collegiate Taekwondo Team departed on August 10 from San Francisco en route to the 2011 World University Games (also called the Universiade), to be held in Shenzhen, China. The team attended the opening ceremonies on Friday, Aug 12 and will compete on Aug 18-23.
The poomsae team consists of Rocky Cao (DeAnza College, men’s team), Rene Chen (Rhode Island School of Design, women’s individual, mixed pair, women’s team), Brandon DeSouza (U. Massachusetts Lowell, mixed pair), Carissa Fu (Princeton University, women’s team), Alvin Jong (DeAnza College, men’s team), Erika Lee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, women’s team), Ryan Lien (Mt. San Antonio College, men’s individual), and Long Nguyen (San Jose State University, men’s team).
The men’s sparring team is represented by Adrian Zambrano (Glendale Community College, 54 kg), Tyler Sawyer (Santa Clara University, 58 kg), Stepfon Westbrook (California State University, Northridge, 63 kg ), Jensen Ishida (University of Hawaii-Manoa, 68 kg), Alex Ahlstrom (California State University, Northridge, 74 kg), Phillip Yun (University of the Pacific, 80 kg), Jared Reed (American River College, 87 kg), and Stephen Lambdin (California Lutheran University, +87 kg).
The women’s sparring team is represented by Katherine Trinh (University of California, Berkeley, 46 kg), Jazzmynn Paguirigan (Los Medanos College, 49 kg), Aziza Chambers (University of Dayton, 53 kg), Shaina Krause (George Mason, 57 kg), Jennifer Daye (University of Central Oklahoma, 62 kg), Tasha Pruter (University of Missouri, Kansas city, 67 kg), Blanca “Jenny” Quezada (Arizona State University, 73 kg), and Danielle Harrison (Johnson and Wales, +73 kg).
Lambdin and Chambers are National Collegiate Team captains. The team director for the trip is Han Won Lee. The team leaders for the trip are Jae Ho Kim. Byung Ryu, Chang Choi and Chan Wu Sr. are also delegation members.
The team is coached by Head Coach Tim Ghormley. Serving as sparring coaches are Chul Ho Kim, Reynaldo Soriano, and Steve Robarsky. The poomsae coach is Dan Chuang. The senior team manager is Alex Antipa, joined by men’s team manager Rex Hatfield and women’s team manager Linda Buell. Providing medical care are Jo Silkin and Dr. Sherri Lashomb.
NCTA President Dr. Russell Ahn will be serving as the World Taekwondo Federation Technical Delegate for the games, and NCTA Referee Chair Jun C. Yoon and Greg Kailian will be serving as referees at the Games.
The World University Games are broadcast at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
NCTA Athletes Compete at World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships
0Congratulations to US National Collegiate Team members Rene Chen and Long Nguyen, who competed at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Vladivostok, Russia, from July 29-31, 2011. Rene competed in the Women’s Senior 1 Individual division. She placed 5th in her preliminary bracket, and 9th in the semifinals, missing the top 8 finals by the slimmest of margins. Long Nguyen competed with his brothers Huy Nguyen and Anh Nguyen in the Men’s 1st Team division. While they performed well, they did not advance to the semifinals. NCTA athletes Lance Supnet and Hazel Cruz also competed in the 1st Mixed Pair division, but did not advance.
Rene Chen at World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships
Day 1 of World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships
2011 World University Games
0As you may know, our National Collegiate Team will be travelling to Shenzhen, China on August 10th 2011 to represent the United States. We will be competing at the Summer World University Games along with 9000 participants from 174 countries in 23 sports. As part of our preparation, we will be attending a training camp at the La Loma High Performance Sports Center in San Luis Potosi Mexico.
Our team is raising money to offset the camp expenses and a donation in any amount from you will go a long way toward helping us! The National Collegiate Taekwondo Association has set up a donation page to enable our friends and supporters to make a secure tax-deductible donation online:
For questions regarding our team, the competition or your donation, please feel free to contact U.S. National Team Head Coach Tim Ghormley. We truly appreciate your support!