All of the long hours, days, months and even years of hard work finally paid off for several students from Total Taekwondo.
The Columbus outfit competed in the AAU Taekwondo National Championships earlier this month in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and came away with 24 medals that included nine championships, seven runners-up and eight third-place finishes.
Columbus East incoming senior Ethan Steinrock became a national champion in the 18-to-32-year-old adult men advanced belts, the 18-32 adult men advanced belts WT forms division, the 18-32 adult men advanced belts Open Forms division and the 18-32 advanced belt division Olympic Sparring.
“It was awesome, and this was my second year competing,” Steinrock said. “I started taekwondo three years ago, and right after that, I was interested in sparring. It’s a really cool atmosphere, and it’s in a huge convention center with 14 rings. It’s crazy and so loud, it’s electric. It’s a pretty cool experience to walk in there and watch. They’re a lot of things to see there.”
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Columbus North incoming freshman Ritisha Rashmil won the national championship in the 12-14 female advanced belt division Olympic Sparring. She also placed second in the female advanced belts Open and third place in the World Taekwondo forms division.
Rashmil has competed in taekwondo for three years.
“Going in, I was super-nervous. This was my second year competing (at nationals), so I got a little more confident,” Rashmil said. “There was a lot of energy everywhere. During the match, you would always hear yelling and screaming of encouragement. It’s high energy and pretty cool.”
Northside Middle School’s Skyelar Ross was the champion in the 12-13 female intermediate belts Open forms division and the World Taewkondo forms division and finished third in the 12-14 intermediate belt Olympic sparring.
Ross is going into her third year of taekwondo and has had a lot of fun. Going against tough competition has helped her become a better fighter.
“(Having more competitors) helps you learn about it more instead of fighting the same people over and over,” Ross said. “You can get in a lot of experience fighting other people.”
Catherine Yang won the 8-9 female advanced belts Open forms division. Sinchana Manjunatha won the national championship in the 6-7 female novice belts Open forms division and finished second in the 6-7 female novice belts World Taekwondo.
In forms competition, fighters have to follow a set pattern of punches, kicks and blocks. The competitors are judged on their technique and intensity, along with the grace and strength of each movement.
In sparring competition, competitors actually are fighting with each other. Olympic sparring is nonstop fighting for a set number of rounds, with fighters scoring points for each blow. In point sparring, the action is stopped after each point is scored, and the first fighter to a set number of points wins.
Second place finishers for Total Taekwondo included Tatum Downing in the 18-32 adult female black belts World Taekwondo forms division, Sophie Anderson in the 12-13 female intermediate belts Open forms division, Luis Valerdi in the 10-11 male advanced belts Open forms division, Wendy Zhong in the 10-11 novice belts Olympic sparring under 64 pounds and Rendy Zhong in the 10-11 novice belts Olympic sparring 64-77 pound division.
Third-place finishers were Downing in the 18-32 adult female black belts and the 18-32 black belts Open forms division, Anderson in the 12-13 female intermediate belts World Taekwondo, Parker Ross in the 8-9 male novice belts World Taekwondo, Taylor Anderson in the 8-9 female intermediate belts Open forms division and Paola Fernandez in the 15-17 intermediate belts Olympic sparring.
Total Taekwondo Master Robert Kelley has been involved in taekwondo for 30 years. Total Taekwondo opened under Kelley in March 2012, and classes were ran at Total Fitness. Kelley said the numbers got too big, so he relocated over to its current facility off U.S. 31 near the intersection of Lowell Road and 150 West to have more practice and class time.
Master Kelley said Total Taekwondo just started pushing for a competitive tournament team the past three to four years, and so far, the results have been excellent.
“In a short amount of time, these kids have accomplished a whole lot,” Kelley said. “When they go to nationals, they’re going against schools where their Masters are Olympic champions or well known international competitors, ones that compete at the highest level. For a small school like this to go and compete at that level and to win at that level, it’s pretty astounding. When you think about it, just how much they’re accomplishing, it’s really phenomenal.”
Master Kelley has been a Columbus resident since he was 5 years old and is glad to give back to the younger generations of students.
“The community is great, and the people are great,” Kelley said. “It’s allowed me to do this for a long time.”
