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Naples, Italy – (July 7, 2019) A hot start for USA Team as both Individual Poomsae athletes medaled in the above 90 degree temperature at the Pala Casoria Arena, the Taekwondo venue for the 30th Universiade, as Adalis “AJ” Munoz earned gold and Edward Jeong earned silver.

Munoz followed her 2017 Universiade bronze performance and gold medal performance at the 2018 World Poomsae Championships in Taipei, Chinese Taipei with this commanding performance. She grew stronger as the day progressed, placing 7th in her flight performing Taegeuk 5 and 6, then placing 6th in the semis with Taegeuk 8 and Koryo. In the finals, she performed Taebaek and a freestyle poomsae, jumping from 6th seed to first with a dominating freestyle performance.

“I am very emotional and overwhlemed that I medaled, let alone won a gold medal. This year has been a struggle for me balancing all of the things in my life and I was somewhat doubtful that I would do well at this event. Thank you to my family and all of the people who helped me get here.’

The Silver medalist from the 2017 Universiade in Taipei, Chinese Taipei, Eddie Jeong was able to repeat this feat once again against the best collegiate athletes in the world. Jeong, also won a bronze medalist at the 2018 World Poomsae Championships in the Mixed Team Poomsae Division, also improved dramatically from the preliminary round, placing 7th in his flight with Taegeuk 7 and 8, then jumping to 2nd place in the semifinal round with a balanced and solid Koryo and Keumgang. In the finals, Eddie performed Pyongwon and a freestyle performance to solidly outpace the competition, surpassed only by 1st seed Korea in the subsequent performance.

“After medaling at this event in 2017, I knew that this year’s event would be a challenge because the competitive landscape had changed so much. I and my coach stayed tactical and adjusted round by round, and I focused on just getting my ‘A’ run and thankfully it resulted in this silver medal. Thanks to my coach and teammates for the onsite support allowing me to have the confidence to perform the ‘A’ run I was shooting for,” said Jeong.

Tomorrow, men’s and women’s team poomsae will be contested, with Munoz, Christy Quintanilla and Titania Thao in the women’s division and Jeong, Kody Han and Sean Wallace in the mens.