Dr. Ken Min Re-Appointed Technical Chairperson of FISU
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On behalf of the University of California Martial Arts Program, we are pleased to let you know that our founding director Dr. Ken Min has been re-appointed as Taekwondo Technical Chairperson for FISU (International University Sports Federation).
For your information, University Taekwondo Movement started our own campus under the outstanding leadership of Dr. Ken Min in 1986 when the UC Martial Arts Program hosted the 1st World University Taekwondo Championship on campus. Here are some footsteps of history in University Taekwondo developments.
The 1st FISU WUTC was followed by the 2nd in Santander, Spain; the 3rd in Guadalajara, Mexico; the 4th in St. Petersburg, Russia; the 5th in Manzanillo-Colima, Mexico; the 6th in Kaohsiung, Taipei; the 7th in Berkeley, California USA; the 8th in Patra, Greece; the 9th in Valencia, Spain. The 10th WUTC was held highly successfully in Belgrade, Serbia as a test event for the 2009 Summer Universiade. The 11th was held in 2010 at Vigo, Spain; and the 12th WUTC will be held at Pocheon, Korea in May, 2012. The FISU Executive Committee passed taekwondo as a FISU event for the World University Championships on May 8-10, 1986 at Zagreb, Croatia.
Taekwondo was first introduced as a Summer Universiade program in Daegu, S. Korea (2003). The popularity of university taekwondo has increased dramatically in every subsequent Summer Universiade from Izmir, Turkey (2005); Bangkok, Thailand (2007); and in Belgrade, Serbia (2009) where Poomsae was officially added along with Kyorugi in the 25th Summer Universiade. Therefore, all future WUTC and Summer Universiades will hold combined competition for 5 divisions of Poomsae and 16 divisions of Kyorugi. The 26th Summer Universiade was held in Shenzhen, China (2011) with the largest number of nations and athletes participating. Kwangju, Korea will host the 28th Summer Universiade in 2015. A resolution was passed at Erzurum, Turkey on November 12-14, 2009 to include Taekwondo as a compulsory program from the 29th Summer Universiade in 2017.
As you may know Dr. Min’s lifetime dedication as well as his never ending endeavors on developing University Taekwondo brought up a compulsory status in the Summer Universiade Games through FISU. It is such great news that Dr. Min and UCMAP’s leadership will continue to serve the University Taekwondo Movement in the next four years under FISU. Again, congratulations on Dr. Min’s recognition and reappointment!
Meeting Minutes
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The meeting minutes for the November 15, 2011 are available here.
2012 NCTA Championships
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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
