(Aurora, CO) – The Korean Academy of Taekwondo hosted the 2018 White Tiger Championships at Rangeview High School on April 28th, 2018. Although most of the competitors were from Colorado, the event drew athletes from Wyoming, Tajikistan, and Iraq.
The White Tiger Championships is part of a series that includes the Twin Dragons Tournament and Lone Wolf Classic. Students earn one piece, or shard, of a medal in each event and then can connect them together to form a super medal if they place in events 3 years in a row.
This year’s tournament set a record with 375 competitors. Sparring was the most popular event, especially in the color belt divisions due to the fact that students didn’t need to purchase Daedo socks. There were many fierce matches from black belt on down.
Academy of Life and Leadership Taekwondo from Colorado Springs, lead by Grandmaster and Olympian Barb Kunkel brought a large team, and took first place in both the Championship and Recreational Demo Team competitions.
The competition featured 10 events in total – Traditional Forms, Team Traditional Forms, Team Creative Forms, Weapons Forms, Junk Weapons, Totem Forms, Blaster Pad Sparring, Olympic Sparring, Cloud Chess and Free Grappling.
There was a wide variety of competitors in attendance, with ages ranging from 3 to over 70, and skills ranging from high international caliber to special needs. The tournament also formed the final meeting in the Colorado K8 League 2017-2018 Season, with Montessori Del Mundo taking top honors.
Several colleges and universities sent teams, including CU Denver, MSU Denver, UNC Greely, and DU. MSU Denver led the way with 17 medals total, and CU Denver followed with 13.
Two competitors get ready to begin Totem Forms
After several hard fought blaster pad matches.