Aurora, CO – Champion Taekwondo Academy held the first Mile High Open tournament at Aurora Frontier Middle School on October 13th, 2012. The tournament feat
ured competition in forms, breaking, weapons, sparring, blaster pad, and many creative/musical/group forms divisions. There were approximately 155 competitors from three states who attended the event.
The event used Daedo Electronic Scoring for the Olympic Style Sparring divisions, and there were many exciting matches. One of the highlights of the event was the opening ceremonies, where Master Andre Olivera talked about what it took to run his first tournament in the US. He compared it with an international championship that he had run decades before in Brasil. The masters who attended introduced themselves and gave some words of advice for the students and competitors.
Students bow during the opening ceremonies
The tournament also gave out awards for schools that supported the event by bringing the most competitors. First place went to A Team Taekwondo, second place went to the Korean Academy of Taekwondo, and third place went to Champion Taekwondo Academy, which had traveled all the way from New Mexico. There was also a trophy for the best collegiate team, which went to CU Boulder Taekwondo.
The event featured beautiful team awards
The sparring competition was fierce, with many talented black belts. The referees voted and gave the best sparring award to Brianna Ballard for females and Andrzey Belicki (Delgado’s TKD) for males.
Action during the finals of the men’s black belt featherweight sparring
All in all it was a great event that was well run by the CTA staff and volunteers. Several competitors and parents remarked at how smoothly the event was running. With a tournament like that, expect it to be even larger next year!