On 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