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2019 NCTA Sparring Team Trials Held in Ft. Worth, SWUG Sparring Team Selected
Congratulations to the sparring team trials winners who competed Saturday, March 9 at the Ft. Worth Convention Center in Ft. Worth Texas! This team will represent Team USA at the Summer World University Games in Naples, Italy this July 2019. Special thanks to the Texas State Taekwondo Association for supporting this event.
Female Fly – Lizette Salas (California State University, Northridge)
Male Fly – Alejandro Bravo (Miami Dade Community College)
Female Bantam – Logan Weber (Johnson County Community College)
Male Bantam – George El-Chemali (University of Southern California)
Female Feather – Starla Santana (Miami Dade Community College)
Male Feather – Charles Buset (American Military University)
Female Light – Amanda Bluford (De Vry University)
Male Light – Matthew Klein (University of Dayton)
Female Welter – Cheyenne Lewis (University of California, Berkeley)
Male Welter – Connor Wilson (University of California, Los Angeles)
Female Middle – Makayla Gorka (University of Central Oklahoma)
Male Middle – Abdul Rahman (College of Southern Maryland)
2019 SWUG Sparring Team Trials Registration Open
NCTA Mourns Loss of Lou Keppner
Said NCTA Referee Char Mike Wickham, “Mr. Keppner was a man who gave of himself for Taekwondo. For the Poomsae Pro system he helped create, he spent the time to make sure things worked smoothly. I will miss seeing him at events and enjoy the visits during those time. Lou was the consummate professional in what he did.”
Date of 2019 Summer World University Games Sparring Team Trials Announced
Updates to 2019 Summer World University Games Team Selection
Several changes to athlete eligibility for the 2019 Summer World University Games have been implemented this year by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). These changes will impact our USA team selection process for the Games. The changes instituted by FISU are as follows:
1) Only athletes aged 18-25 (athlete’s age on Dec. 31, 2019) are eligible to compete in the 2019 Summer World University Games.
2) No fin (-54kg male, -46kg female) or heavy (+87kg male, +73kg female) sparring divisions will be contested at the 2019 Summer World University Games due to event housing constraints, leaving only 12 weight categories that will be contested at the Games.
3) Only 6 poomsae athletes from each country are allowed to compete at the 2019 Summer Summer World University Games due to housing constraints.
The NCTA wishes to be inclusive of all collegiate athletes. Therefore, in 2019, the NCTA will hold a team trials event (open to those meeting collegiate and age eligibility) that will be separate from the National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships (to be held April 19-21 at U. of Texas, Austin).
Holding a separate team trials and NCTA National Championships will allow the Championships to be more inclusive in terms of age (18+), citizenship (international students allowed), and sparring weight classes (inclusive of all 16 weight divisions).
The 2019 Summer World University Games team trials will only include divisions that will be contested at the Summer World University Games. Adjustments to the poomsae athlete selection process to meet the 6 athlete quota are being considered and will be announced as soon as possible.
It is the NCTA’s intention that both the Team Trials and Championships events will be USAT sanctioned and USAT ranking point-bearing events.
The date and location of the 2019 Collegiate Team Trials are being determined and will be announced as soon as possible.
UPDATE (1/3/2019): The age range has been corrected from 19-25 to 18-25 based on the latest information from FISU.