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
2011 Universiade: Day 2 of Competition
0Day 2 of competition continued for the US Collegiate National Team with men’s team, women’s team and mixed pair poomsae competition.
Representing the United States in the men’s team division was Long Nguyen (San Jose State, hometown San Jose, CA), Rocky Cao (De Anza College, hometown San Jose, CA )and Alvin Jong (De Anza College, hometown San Jose, CA). Nguyen, Cao and Jong automatically advanced to the semifinals, where they placed an impressive 7th overall by performing Koryo and Keumgang to advance to the final round. In the finals, they competed with Taebaek and Pyongwon and earned 7th place overall for the tournament for the poomsae team’s highest finish of the tournament.
The women’s team division was represented by Rene Chen (Rhode Island School of Design, Medford, MA), Erika Lee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hometown Cambridge, MA) and Carissa Fu (Princeton University, hometown New York, NY). The women’s team performed Taeguek 8 and Koryo, giving a strong performance in the semifinals. They finished 9th, just 1 place shy of the finals by a margin of 0.08 points.
The mixed pair division was represented by Chen and Brandon DeSouza (University of Massachusetts, Lowell, hometown Lowell, MA). Chen and DeSouza performed Keumgang and Taebaek in the semifinals, placing 13th overall but falling shy of the finals round.
Today concludes the poomsae portion of the Taekwondo competition at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China. The poomsae coach for the team was Dan Chuang. “Overall the team performed very well, reaching the finals in 2 out of the 5 divisions in a very competitive field,” said Chuang. “Worldwide, the level of the emerging discipline of poomsae competition has been rising fast over the past several years, and this year was no exception.”
Tomorrow, sparring competition begins. Representing the US are Katherine Trinh (University of California, Berkeley, 46 kg), Adrian Zambrano (Glendale Community College, 54 kg), Shaina Krause (George Mason, 57 kg), and Jensen Ishida (University of Hawaii-Manoa, 68 kg).
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
— Dan Chuang, Poomsae Coach
2011 Universiade: Day 1 of Competition
0Competition for Team USA Taekwondo kicked off today at the World University Games with the Taekwondo Poomsae event. Competing on the day were Rene Chen, who represented the US in the women’s individual category, and Ryan Lien, who represented the US in the men’s individual competition. The caliber of the competition was very high, with many former world championships medalists in the draw.
Rene Chen (Rhode Island School of Design, Medford, MA, women’s individual) competed in the preliminaries, performing Taeguek 5 and Taeguek 6. Chen was 11th in the standings going into the semifinals, where she performed Taeguek 8 and Koryo, which bumped her up to an impressive 6th place going into the finals. In the finals, Chen performed Keumgang and Taebaek. A couple of missteps on Keumgang dropped her to an overall finish of 8th place, but it was an impressive run and the best result for a US female individual poomsae competitor at a world collegiate event.
The other person to go today was Ryan Lien (Mt. San Antonio College, San Gabriel, CA, men’s individual), our men’s individual. He had a tough draw and had to go first but performed well regardless. Lien advanced to the semifinals with Taeguek 7 and 8, but placed 16th in the semis with Koryo and Keumgang, and didn’t advance to the finals.
Competition continues tomorrow with the women’s team poomsae, men’s team poomsae and mixed pair poomsae divisions.
See the photo gallery.
Watch the event live at www.livefisu.tv/watchlive.
— Dan Chuang, Poomsae Coach
