News & Announcements
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2009
December Promotion Test
03/10/10 Belated congratulations to everyone who tested on December 12, as well as at the makeup test on January 20! The level of the tests was high: the yellow belts had great spirit, while our middle ranks showed some excellent technical proficiency. The test was capped off by James's inspirational and grueling 1st Dan test, and Julie showed off her Taekwondo maturity as she tested for her 2nd Dan.
The following students have been promoted to the rank of GREEN STRIPE, 8th Gup: Marianne C, Dee C, Adam G, Bennett G, Janine L
The following students have been promoted to the rank of BLUE STRIPE, 6th Gup: Bert E, Lori T, Lu X
The following student has been promoted to the rank of BLUE BELT, 5th Gup: Samia M
The following student has been promoted to the rank of RED STRIPE, 4th Gup: Yoshiko I
The following students have been promoted to the rank of BLACK STRIPE, 2nd Gup, Assistant Instructor: Wes A, Bart G, Fanghong S
The following student has been promoted to the rank of 1ST DAN BLACK BELT: James G
The following student has been promoted to the rank of 2ND DAN BLACK BELT: Julie N
New England Championships
10.17.09::Several club members traveled to Tewskbury, MA for this annual regional tournament. As usual, Grandmaster Kwon and his daughter Master Jayne Kwon did a great job with the preparatory work. Our excellent CWB staff, led by Master Dan Chuang, pitched in to help with judging and refereeing, in the true spirit of a close-knit Taekwondo community. Special thanks to Anastasia, RDC, Mike Harb, the Grants and Brian McCormick for running rings; and to Kathy for running the head table. Thanks also to the many volunteers and supporters, including: Chris T, Tara T, and Baby Alessandra; Dee C; Elaine G; Maureen S; Jean K; Matt L; Josh Doloff; Janine Lyn; and Fabio. Congratulations to all of the competitors! Results were as follows:
Yoshiko Iwamoto (Gold Forms, Gold Sparring) - Yoshiko did an excellent Taeguek Oh Jang, but really shone in sparring, where she faced two much larger and more physical women, both of whom were good competitors. Yoshiko used deft footwork and strong inside kicks in both matches to open up wide leads and avoid being kicked by her bigger opponents.
Fanghong Shi (Gold Forms, Bronze Sparring) - Fang sparred Christine Chin, one of the collegiate All-Stars from MIT, and held her own well, landing some good body kicks. She got some great experience, although she didn't win.
Julie Nelson (Gold Forms, Silver Sparring) - Julie also sparred Christine Chin and, in her words, "had a blast" trading kicks with her very strong opponent. She also had an excellent performance in forms, showing her knowledge of the new standards.
James Glettler (Gold Forms, Bronze Sparring) - James sparred in one of the biggest divisions of the day, men's red belt. It was his first tournament since his arm injury two years ago and he did great, landing an attacking reverse turning kick to the head to score 3 points! He won his first match against a competitor from Boston University and lost a second match to a very strong competitor from the same school.
Mike Scanlan (Gold Forms, Silver Sparring) - Mike made his way through the recently-learned Koryo in fine form, winning gold over another black belt competitor. In sparring, he faced a very athletic and much younger competitor, but used his distance and timing amazingly well, keeping the high-scoring match neck and neck until the final moments of the match, when he just fell short. It was an inspiring match for all to watch!
Nouredine Ousmane (Gold Sparring) - Nourdine sparred someone even taller and bigger than he was, but still managed to win handily, winning by the 10 point gap. One highlight was a sextuple kick he landed moving backwards!
Jason Greenberg (Gold Forms) - Jason beat out a very strong competitor in a head-to-head Keumgang 2nd Dan challenge.
Steph Chiang (Gold Sparring) - in her first non-collegiate, non ECTC debut, Steph sparred (ironically) a collegiate competitor from Boston University. Steph used the opportunity to work her steps and get comfortable with the new rules, landing a couple of nice narabangs.
Christine Chin (Gold Sparring) - sparred Julie and Fang. She looked good, showing both her experience and also her ability to adjust to different styles.
September Promotion Test
09.21.09::Congrats to everyone who promoted on Saturday, Sept. 12 and the following Wednesday, Sept. 16 at the makeup test! It was a small but strong group, with a spectacular black belt test from Nouredine, which represented the conclusion of a long journey for him at 3 different Taekwondo clubs.
The following students have been promoted to the rank of Green Stripe, 8th Gup: Veronica G, Elaine G
The following students have been promoted to the rank of Green Belt, 7th Gup: Bert E, David S
The following student has been promoted to the rank of Blue Stripe, 6th Gup: Brandy W
The following student has been promoted to the rank of Blue Belt, 5th Gup: Yoshiko I
The following students have been promoted to the rank of Red Belt, 3rd Gup: Wesley A
The following student has been promoted to the rank of provisional 1st Dan Black Belt: Nouredine Ousmane
CWB's First In-class Poomsae Scrimmage
08.25.09::Congrats to everyone who competed at the combined CWB & MIT poomsae scrimmage on Tuesday, August 25th. Thanks to club V.P. Events Officers, Wes and Tanya Austin, for coming up with the idea for this event. The turnout was great, with over 30 people attending and working together in a lively warm-up before doing individual forms. The participants really gave it their all, and the atmosphere was intense as people waited for their scores. World University Games team members Karolina Corin, Bobby Ren, and Alicia Zhou served as judges. There were 4 divisions, with results as follows:
Yellow/Green Belt (1) Ty Lin (2) Yoshiko Iwamoto (3) Tiffany Chen
Blue Belt (1) Christine Hsueh (tiebreaker with 2nd) (2) Wes Austin (tiebreaker with 1st) (3) Tanya Austin
Red Belt (1) David Chan (2) Nouredine Ousmane (3) James Glettler
Black Belt (1) Dan Sauza (2) Jihye Kim (3) Julie Nelson
Jayson and Brett Compete at Korea Open
08.22.09::Congratulations to Jayson Grant and Brett Schuscheraba, two of our competition workout members and youth program instructors who competed at the Korea Taekwondo Open in Incheon, Korea on August 2122. Jayson and Brett were both fully funded through USA Taekwondo to compete representing the United States. The tournament was very high-level with national teams in attendance from all over the world. Jayson competed first and went undefeated on the day, taking a GOLD medal. This is Jayson's first gold medal at a major international event; one of his opponents was a former world silver medalist. Brett competed the next day, and despite his excellent preparation for the tournament, Brett lost in the first round to Taekwondo powerhouse Korea. It was a tough draw but he represented our program and the US well.
Summer World University Games
07.06.09::Master Dan Chuang traveled along with Jayson Grant, Karolina Corin, Bobby Ren , Alicia Zhou, and Becca Hung to the Summer World University Games, held in Belgrade, Serbia, from July 16. Master Chuang served as both poomsae and sparring coach of the US Taekwondo team at this multi-sport event, which included 8,995 athletes from over 170 countries. Our team got to rub elbows with athletes from all over the world!
First up were Bobby and Alicia competing in pairs poomsae. They advanced through the preliminaries with Taeguek Pal Jang and Koryo, advancing to the semifinal round where they placed 11th, performing Keumgang and Taebaek. It was an excellent result in a very competitive division, which included several world medalists. Next up was the women's triple: Alicia, Karolina, and Becca. They also advanced through the preliminaries and missed the finals in the semis by just one place, placing 9th overall. They performed Taeguek Pal Jang and Koryo in the preliminaries, and Keumgang and Taebaek in the semifinal.
On the the 6th day of competition, Jayson Grant competed as the US men's middleweight in sparring. He had a tough draw, meeting Alexander Nikitin from Russia, last year's silver medalist in the first round. Jayson got down early and the refereeing made it hard for him to get back into the match, but he fought hard until the end, unfortunately ending on a 4-1 loss. Nikitin went on to beat powerhouse Korea and narrowly lose in the finals to earn a silver.
The USA Taekwondo team earned one medal: Terrence Jennings (coached by Master Chuang) won a bronze in men's feather, winning 3 matches and losing in sudden death overtime to the gold medalist. We also had 8 athletes reach the quarterfinals, just one match shy of the medal rounds, and our men's poomsae team finished just 2 places away from the medals with a 6th place finish. All in all our team did well, and it was an exciting opportunity to compete on the international stage.
National Poomsae Team Trials
07.03.09::Congratulations to Rene Chen, Anye Li, Christina Park and Kathy Chuang who participated in this year's US National Poomsae Team trials in Austin, Texas on July 3. This event was much like the collegiate poomsae trials, but open to all competitors to try out for the team headed to Egypt this December for the World Poomsae Championships.
Rene did great in in women's individuals. She performed Keumgang and Taebaek in the semis, finishing 3rd overall. In the finals, she performed Pyongwon and Sipjin, and placed 4th, missing bronze by just 2 hundredths of a point! Rene performed very well in her first national outing and received rave reviews from some of the other national poomsae team members.
Rene, Christina and Kathy did women's team poomsae. Despite losing 0.1 off the top for Christina's broken hand (which she broke sparring at AAU Nationals earlier in the week), and only 4 practices together, being in different cities, they placed 2nd by a relatively close margin to last year's team members.
Anye competed in men's individual poomsae. He advanced to the semifinals with a 7th place ranking, and finished 8th overall. The judging was a little erratic in his ring, but it was a good performance overall for him.
Rene and Anye performed mixed pairs poomsae. There was some pretty inconsistent judging and they didn't advance to the finals. Christina also did pairs poomsae with her partner Scott, and they placed 7th in the semis and advanced to 5th in the finals, despite her broken hand.
All in all, it was a great showing by our athletes in this growing discipline of sport poomsae.
AAU Nationals
06.30.09::There was lots of action at the AAU National Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on June 30 from the t.Bos competition crew and our friends at West Side Taekwondo. Fabio Takahashi and Chinedum Osuji were on hand to coach. Elijah Grant lost a close match 6-5 to the existing AAU team member. Ana Kazimirova had a tough match but was still working off some ring rust after being away for a while. Thyago sparred Lenn Hypolite in the quarters, losing 7-6 in a really close match; Lenn went on to take the Gold at lightweight. RDC Chambers won his first match but lost a very close match to national medalist Alexander Sokolov. Dorian Alexander took silver in feather, losing in the finals to an athlete from Puerto Rico. Christina Park took gold in women's middle but broke her hand in the process (she's had surgery and is recovering). Darlin Gil took a silver in men's heavy.
Summer Adult Promotion Test
06.27.09::It was an exciting day and an unusually large test for a summer session, a testament to everyone's hard work. In addition to the color belt levels, four black belt candidates tested for 1st Dan, and two of our longstanding pillars of the club tested for 3rd Dan. Congratulations to all!
The following student has been promoted to the rank of GREEN STRIPE, 8th Gup: Bert E
The following students have been promoted to the rank of GREEN BELT, 7th Gup: Xuan L, Lori T, Mariann W
The following students have been promoted to the rank of BLUE STRIPE, 6th Gup: Yoshiko I, Brian L, Samia M
The following students have been promoted to the rank of RED STRIPE, 4th Gup: Tanya A, Wesley A, Chris L
The following students have been promoted to the rank of RED BELT, 3rd Gup: Bart G, Brian M, Agnieszka R, Fanghong S
The following students have been promoted to the rank of provisional 1ST DAN BLACK BELT: Joshua Doloff, Alan Lenarcic, Erick Rondan, Michael Scanlan
The following students have been promoted to the rank of provisional 3RD DAN BLACK BELT: Brian McCormick, Hamilton Paul
CWB at River Fest
06.13.09::Our club was a strong presence again this year at the Cambridge River Festival, an outdoor community event held every June along Memorial Drive. Luckily the predicted rain held off, and the sunny weather resulted in big crowds. A dedicated group of CWB members was on hand throughout the day manning our table, along with doing forms, kicking, demo sparring, and board breaks. And as usual, we had plenty of audience participation from both children and adults. Volunteers included: Lisa, Brian McCormick, James, Jean, Alan, Nouredine, Charles, Nathan, Erica, Dan, Kathy, Alicia, Bobby, RDC, Renee, Christina, Brett, Mariann, Lori, and Mike Harb. Chris Tuozzolo coordinated kids from the Youth program, who performed an excellent demo. Other members of the CWB family who stopped by to show their support included: Jordan, Paul, Alban, Tara (with baby Alessandra), and Jody (with baby Brayden).
Brett Competes at International Taekwondo Festival
06.07.09::Congrats to Brett Schuschereba, tBos member and Youth Program instructor, who competed on a 4-person team to win 2nd place in the team event at the International Taekwondo Festival in the City of Industry, CA. His team made it out of the preliminaries and took second to the Korean team in a tightly contested final.
Northeast Open
06.06.09::The Northeast Open tournament was held on Saturday, June 6th, in Norwell, MA. Kyria and Fabio Takahashi of Xcel Taekwondo hosted competitors from the Boston area, plus a huge contingent (over 50 people) from the Montreal, Canada area. Adding to the international contingent at the tournament were competitors from Trinidad, Cape Verde, and Brazil. Many of the black belt competitors especially really came to fight and were very experienced. Helping out at the tournament were: Mike Harb, who acted as the tournament director; Dan Chuang, who was coaching and providing tech support; Kathy Chuang, who gave up her coaching duties in order to serve as medical coverage the whole day; Chinedum Osuji, who was there to help with refereeing and to coach Dorian of the Trinidad national team; Jayson Grant, who helped out with coaching and refereeing; Jason Grant (sr.), who refereed all day; Alicia Zhou, who helped run the head table; Richard-Duane Chambers who both ran the table and competed; and Lisa DeSiro and Matt Litman, who both cut their teeth as center referees.
The day started with forms, which were done by double elimination in head-to-head competition. Then the adult color belts sparred, followed by the black belt competition at the end. C.W. Taekwondo earned the 3rd place overall trophy as a club. Individual results of CWB members and affiliates were as follows:
Richard-Duane Chambers (RDC) had arguably one of the most competitive divisions of the day, with a combined light, welter, and middle-weight division. He took on all comers, facing two Canadians (one of whom was very, very tall) and a competitor from Cape Verde. RDC won all of his matches convincingly, showing a lot of composure to win the GOLD medal.
Dorian Alexander fought off a cold, going 1-1 to earn a SILVER medal in sparring in the feather division.
Elijah Grant had some of the most exciting matches, landing doubles and back kicks in 3 high-scoring shootouts to take the SILVER medal. He went 2-1 on the day, sparring great against some really skilled competitors in matches with scores in the 20s (there was no point ceiling).
Mike Scanlan performed Taeguek Pal Jang in a combined red-black belt division to earn SILVER in forms. He went on to tirelessly corner judge for the rest of the day and help out with the tournament.
Wes Austin sparred Brian Loux and showed some strong long kicks and head shots to go up early, and fended off a last-minute run by Brian to win a GOLD in sparring. Wes also earned a BRONZE in forms on his Taeguek Oh Jang.
Fanghong Shi didn't have anyone in her division but sparred Lori Thomas in an exhibition match. She showed some solid turning kicks to the body and won her match, taking home a GOLD in sparring. Somehow she got bracketed with the men for forms and she did a great job but didn't take a medal.
Tanya Austin made her tournament debut and performed an excellent Taeguek Oh Jang. She covered a small mistake with great composure and stuck her side kicks nicely, earning a SILVER in forms.
Chris Lo had the only double gold on the day. He performed Taeguek Oh Jang 3 times to take 1st place out of 5 competitors and earned a GOLD in forms (blue-green belt). He sparred twice (double elimination) against Ian Beam from Tufts and won twice to earn a GOLD in sparring as well.
Alvin Chen, a member of the MIT Sport Taekwondo Club, earned a SILVER in forms, performing Taeguek Sa Jang twice to advance to the finals where he lost to Chris. He also sparred a tough competitor from another school, and went down early 8-0 but then mounted an amazing comeback to pull to within 2 points, but ran out of time, earning him a SILVER in sparring. Alvin also earned a SILVER in breaking.
Brian Loux - sparred Wes. After getting down early, he mounted a comeback on some inside kicks, pulling to within 5-4, but Wes was able to hold him off. Brian earned a SILVER in sparring.
Yoshiko Iwamoto - performed an excellent Taeguek Sam Jang to earn the GOLD medal in forms. She was injured so decided to sit sparring out.
Lori Thomas - went against a competitor from Xcel Taekwondo to earn a GOLD in forms on a powerful Taeguek E Jang. She also sparred Fang in an exhibition match and kept her composure through all three rounds, adjusting her tactics throughout. Although she didn't win, she took home a GOLD in sparring.
Gabriel Takahashi - made his tournament debut at the age of 3, winning a GOLD in sparring against a six-year old! Given his parents, we didn't have any doubts he'd do well and make them both proud.
Summer World University Games
06.01.09::C.W. Taekwondo at Boston and its competition team t.Bos are proud to have a 5 competitors who qualified for the 2009 US National Collegiate Team. Find out more...
Pan Am Collegiate Tournament
05.29.09::Members of tBos competed at the Pan Am Collegiates at the end of May. The tournament was small with only a few countries in attendance, but the competition was spirited and very high caliber. Results: Jayson Grant - Gold, middle sparring; Alicia Zhou and Bobby Ren - Gold, pairs poomsae; Alicia Zhou, Stephanie Kroll and Carissa Fu - Silver, team poomsae; Emma Wu - Silver, light sparring.
Dojang Renovations
05.26.09::A long-planned renovation of the dojang reception and office areas was successfully implemented over Memorial Day weekend. Two new desks, a set of storage cubbies, and several wall-mounted cabinets were installed. Chris Tuozzolo and Bart Goldberg organized the project and the work crew, putting in long hours throughout the weekend. The team of volunteers who helped either one, two, or all three days included: Lisa, Jim, Jason B., Jason G., Mike H., Jean, James, Darci, Agnieszka, Paul, Lori, Dan, Kathy, Wes, Maureen, Alicia, and Bobby.
US Collegiate National Team Trials
05.25.09::Jayson Grant and Anastasia Kazimirova competed at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO on May 15th, where they were coached by Master Dan Chuang. Jayson won the men's middleweight spot on the US Collegiate National Sparring Team for the Summer World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia. Ana finished 4th in her very competitive division, women's lightweight.
Ana K. Tests for 3rd Dan
05.02.09::Congratulations to club instructor Anastasia Kazimirova, who tested for her 3rd Dan black belt at C.W. Taekwondo of Ithaca on Saturday, May 2nd. The test was presided over by Grandmaster Cho. Ana did a great job, demonstrating some really tough sparring and also a nice combination board break of high narabang and multple board step-in-back kick.
CWB at Earth Day
04.25.09::On Saturday, April 25th, a group of CW Taekwondoists took part in the Earth Day Cleanup of the Charles River. We were lucky enough to have the best weather conditions of the year thus far as we went about collecting trash and beautifying the banks of the Charles at our site in Cambridge. In attendance were Mel, Lisa, Paul, Jim, Wes, Tanya, Josh, Juan, Maureen, Samia, Mariann, Aisling, Brian Mc, Jason B, Hamilton and Darci.
Connecticut Classic Tournament
03.29.09::CWB members traveled to Tolland, CT on Sunday, March 29 to compete in the US Taekwondo Classic. This is one of the biggest regional spring tournaments in the New England area, directed by Master David Turgeon. With six rings running continuously, and some overlap in our participants' matches, it was an exciting experience!
In the color belt forms division, our club came out on top: Yoshiko Iwamoto - GOLD, women's white/yellow; Laura Dominguez - SILVER, women's white/yellow; Mohammad Janbozorgi - GOLD, men's green/blue; Agnieszka Rytych - GOLD, women's green/blue; Fang Hong Shi - SILVER, women's green/blue.
In color belt sparring, Mohammad took GOLD in men's green belt, fighting two matches and staying strong. Agnieszka took GOLD in women's blue belt, showing good use of basics and pacing. Maureen Shepherd and Fang both faced an 18-year-old red belt, and they did an excellent job against her, but did not advance. Yoshiko lost a very close and exciting match against a bigger blue belt. Maureen, Yoshiko, and Fang all took home BRONZE.
In the black belt division, club instructors Anastasia Kazimirova and Lisa DeSiro competed together in poomsae pairs and also individually, achieving good scores against top-level competitors. Ana also sparred in two challenging matches, fighting well against her opponents but ultimately not advancing; she was coached by CWB alum instructor Chinedum Osuji, who made a surprise appearance at the tournament. Elijah Grant, a member of CWB's extended tBos family, won both of his matches in the 14-17 year old black belt sparring division; he was coached by Fabio Takahashi.
Also in attendance were club instructor Matt Litman, who helped with coordination and transportation, as well as documenting the event; and Master Mike Harb, who was a tournament referee and provided support to the CWB group. Thanks to both, and special kudos to Ana for her leadership in organizing the trip.
National Collegiate Championships
03.24.09::The National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships were held the weekend of March 21st at Brown University. It was an exciting tournament with over 350 competitors from over 90 schools present. CWB head instructor Master Dan Chuang, who serves as Secretary General of the NCTA, was involved with the running of the tournament and he also brought his MIT Sport Taekwondo club to compete. Master Mike Harb brought his Tufts Taekwondo team, and over a dozen members of the "t.Bos" competition group attended as well.
Highlights from the tournament: club instructor Anastasia Kazimirova won a Bronze Medal in sparring (black belt light weight), qualifying for the National Collegiate Team Trials and beating last year's champion in a 7-0 point gap decision in the quarterfinals. Jayson Grant won gold in sparring for the second year a in a row (men's middle weight). Bobby Ren, Alicia Zhou, Becca Hung and Karolina Corin qualified for the US National Collegiate Poomsae Team and will be representing the US this year in international competitions (Berkeley, CA and Belgrade, Serbia). MIT won the overall division over host school Brown by the slimmest of margins (98-96) and won the Overall National Collegiate Championship Title for the 2nd year in a row as a club. Tufts gained national recognition for the first time, placing third as a team in the Novice Division. Congratulations, all!
Spring Adult Promotion Test
03.14.09::Congratulations to everyone who tested on Saturday, March 14! It was an inspiring test with a lot of energy and great technique from the lower belts, combined with the power and skill demonstrated by Jason Greenberg on his 2nd Dan Test.
The following students have been promoted to the rank of GREEN STRIPE, 8th Gup: Lori T, Xuan L, David S
The following students have been promoted to the rank of GREEN BELT, 7th Gup: Samia M, Brandy W, Yoshiko I
The following students have been promoted to the rank of BLUE STRIPE, 6th Gup: Mike S, Maureen S
The following student has been promoted to the rank of BLUE BELT, 5th Gup: Wes A
The following student has been promoted to the rank of RED STRIPE, 4th Gup: Fang H S
The following instructor has been promoted to the rank of 2ND DAN BLACK BELT: Jason G
Another Successful Dojang Cleaning Day
03.7.09::The club got a head start on spring cleaning on March 7th. The dojang was painted, dusted, organized, washed, vacuumed, and steam-cleaned. Afterward there was pizza from The Upper Crust as a reward for the volunteers. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help on a beautiful sunny Saturday: Dan, Brian M, Anastasia, Brett, Hamilton, Matt L, Jason G, Rene C, Mike S, Bessie, Agnieszka, Tanya, Wes, Brian L, Mariann, Yoshi, Xuan Lu, Lori, Mohammad, and Jason B (who also organized the event).
CWB on Ice!
02.21.09::Adults and kids alike had a great time at the Kendall Square ice skating event, where club members and their families came out to strap on skates and enjoy the winter weather. From skating laps to doing forms on ice, there was something for everyone. We had a great turnout, both at the rink and afterward at Cambridge Brewing Company for post-skating dinner. Special thanks to Tanya and Wes Austin, our Events V.P.s, for coordinating the outing. We look forward to more activities we can share with all of the people at CW Boston!
CWB Alumnae Aura Trevino Wins Bronze at World Poomsae Championships
02.09::Congratulations to Aura Trevino, former CWB instructor and Cornell Sport Taekwondo Alumnae, who recently won a bronze medal in the women's team (triple) poomsae division at the World Poomsae Championships in Turkey during December. She represented Mexico and also placed top 10 in the world in the women's 31-40 individual division. Aura was featured a few years ago in a Boston Metro article (PDF) about women in Taekwondo.
