On Saturday, November 19th, 23 UCLA Taekwondo members headed to UCI to compete at the UCI Collegiate Taekwondo Open. This was a special event as it was the first tournament Pacwest, our governing Taekwondo conference, has put on since the pandemic. Our team did a phenomenal job at the tournament with 2 competitors placing third, 6 competitors placing second, and 12 competitors placing first overall. Our members competed in individual poomsae and 3v3 sparring.
16 competitors competed in the individual poomsae division. Our color belt competitors competed with their belt's designated form. Meanwhile our black belt competitors had a choice between two of the black belt forms for their first round of competition, and had to compete with a different form during their second round of competition. Our competitors did a phenomenal job and we couldn't be more proud! Let's take a look at what one of our black belt poomsae competitors, Aiden Begole, has to say about his experience at the UCI tournament.
Aiden Begole: "I definitely thought the sparring and my poomsae division were the most exciting, which isn't super shocking since they had the most stakes for me. Unlike when I've previously competed though, I wasn't just rooting for me. I had my friends in my division and a team to support, and I wasn't just happy I got to the finals but also was cheering for Eugene and Collin. It was a great feeling."
In 3v3 sparring, UCLA Taekwondo formed two color belt teams and one black belt team. Each team had to spar for a total of seven minutes, with members rotating in at our coach's discretion. Points are rewarded by kicking to the body and head, or by punching to the body. All our teams put up a great fight! Here's what one of our black belt sparring competitors, Justin Dao, has to say about the UCI tournament
Justin Dao: "UCI was a great first introduction into the more competitive side of Taekwondo. Although we may have practiced sparring intermittently throughout the year in the club, UCI was my first opportunity to competitively spar. As such, I believe I got to learn just how different the competition aspect adds to the sport. Sparring with other competitors of much higher caliber allowed me to learn from their techniques just that much faster and I believe that the only tried and true way to learn sparring is to have your butt kicked by someone better. Therefore I would recommend everyone to try out sparring at the next competition."
Fantastic job to all of our competitors! They all worked very hard preparing for this competition throughout fall quarter. Finally, a huge thank you to Coach Oh for her support at the tournament and an excellent job coaching our 3v3 sparring competitors.
Our rankings from the tournament can be found below:
Male White - Yellow Belt Poomsae:Â
2nd Place - Jordan Espinoza RamirezÂ
1st Place - Adarsh ChilkundaÂ
Female Green - Purple Belt Poomsae:
3rd Place - Vanessa Chan Â
2nd Place - Meghan LeÂ
1st Place - Sarah TruongÂ
Male Green - Purple Belt Poomsae:
2nd Place - Jesus Gonzalez RamirezÂ
1st Place - Taiga KomatsukiÂ
Female Blue - Brown Belt Poomsae:
1st Place - Alankrita GhoshÂ
Female Red Belt Poomsae:Â
1st Place - Esmeralda LopezÂ
Female Black Belt Poomsae:
Semi-Finalist - Yanaa Mehra
Finalists - Rachel Chan & Victoria Lee
1st Place - Allison ChenÂ
Male Black Belt Poomsae:
Finalists - Aiden Begole & Eugene Kimura
3rd Place - Collin LeÂ
Female Color Belt 3v3 Sparring:
1st Pace - Diana AndradeÂ
1st Place - Vanessa ChanÂ
1st Place - Keya VijapureÂ
Male Color Belt 3v3 Sparring:
2nd Place - Kevin San JuanÂ
2nd Place - Jordan Espinoza RamirezÂ
2nd Place - Brian SierraÂ
Male Black Belt 3v3 Sparring:
1st Place - Justin DaoÂ
1st Place - Derrick KwakÂ
1st Place - William SmithÂ
