Day 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