The 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