2012 NCTA Championships
014 years
by Webmaster
in Championships
The 2012 NCTA Championships will be held on April 7-8, 2012, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, MA. More information will be available soon.
2011 Universiade: Day 6 of Competition
0The 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
2011 Universiade: Day 5 of Competition
0The third sparring day’s action featured the Lightweight and Heavyweight divisions with USA athletes Alex Ahlstrom (M-LW) Jennifer Daye (F-LW), Stephen Lambdin (M-HW) and Danielle Harrison (F-HW).
Alex Ahlstrom opened the day with a close match against Spain’s Raul Martinez Garcia. The match went point for point with Ahlstrom leading until a third round spin-roundhouse bonus point score by Spain. Final score was 5-4 Spain.
Jennifer Daye took on Switzerland’s Nina Klay. The match remained scoreless through the first round, despite strong punches by Daye. Klay scored a single body-shot for a 1-0 victory over the USA.
Danielle Harrison in Women’s Heavyweight fought China’s Yongtong Zhang in a dead-even matchup. Harrison remained the aggressor through regular time which ended in a 2-2 score to force overtime. In the overtime round neither fighter scored a clean point and the judges resorted to ROS (Rules of Superiority). Local favorite Zhang took the judges’ decision.
USA’s veteran heavyweight Stephen Lambdin also fought China in the first round. China’s Yi Zhang seemed no match for Lambdin’s repeated clean scores. After an unsuccessful video review by China, the judges questioned the functionality of the Lajust PSS system and brought in a Lajust technician after an obvious clean body shot failed to register. After testing the system, scoreless kicks continued to a 0-0 regular time finish. Lambdin landed a resounding early fast-kick which failed to register a touch, followed by an inexplicable counter-point by China’s Zhang who won 1-0. Zhang was eliminated in the next round in another scorelsss match against Turkey who won by judges Rules Of
Superiority. Turkey continued through to the gold medal match.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
— Alex Antipa, Team Manager
2011 Universiade: Day 4 of Competition
0The second day of Kyorugi competition featured USA Fly-weights Jazzmyn Paguirigan and Tyler Sawyer in the early matches followed by welter-weights Tasha Pruter and Phillip Yun. Paguirigan opened the day on a positive note with a hard-fought win against Chinese Mongolia. USA was the aggressor in a tight 1-1 match going into round-3. After giving up a defensive point to go down 1-2, Paguirigan kept up the pressure and fought back to an exciting late round come-back 4-3 win, advancing to the round of eight where she eventually lost 0-5 to Turkey. USA’s Tyler Sawyer took on Portugal’s Braganca. Sawyer was giving up nearly 8 inches in height to Portugal whose defensive cut-kick proved too much for the USA. Saywer lost 1-3. Braganca was silver at 2011 Worlds in Korea.
USA’s Phillip Yun wowed the Chinese crowd with his first match win over Germany’s Sebastian Lehman. Yun/Lehman match was a nail-biter with Yun scoring a variety of techniques including punches during regular time. In overtime, USA timed a perfect counter punch against a race attack for a 5-4 win. Team Leader Hanwon Lee had both the USA and Chinese fans roused into thunderous chants of “USA-JAIO, USA-JAIO” in what turned into one of the best early round crowd pleasers. In the round of 16, Yun used his speed, aggression, and excellent ring-management to defeat Mexico’s Sergio Gurrola 6-1. Yun advanced into the quarter finals to take on Morocco. Narrowly missing a blazing jump-spin heel kick that would have tied things up, Yun lost to Morocco 4-9, who went on to finish bronze.
USA’s Tasha Pruter opened the female welter division with a domination 10-0 win over Benin. Pruter, a freshman from University of Missouri, KC used cut-kick/head-shot combos to control the entire match, frustrating her opponent and advancing to the quarter-final round. Using the same tactics, Tasha fought a close match against Korea’s Seu Mi Woo but eventually lost 1-2 in a hear-breaker.
Team spirits were high following today’s action. Under the leadership of Dr. Russell Ahn, Head Coach Tim Ghormley, and leaders Hanwon Lee and Alex Antipa met with Korea’s Collegiate Federation Director Hwan-Sun Lee, Executive Director Chung-Young Lee, and Secretary-General Eun Seok Park to discuss next year’s Collegiate Championships, future exchanges with the USA and growth of collegiate Taekwondo.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
— Alex Antipa, Team Manager
2011 Universiade: Day 3 of Competition
0On 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
