TKU Taekwondo team has won several accolades this year. The latest one was the Collegiate Cup held last month when TKU won one Gold, two Silver and 2 Bronze medals, enabling them to finish with the second place in total scoring among over 40 teams.

The medalists are Wong Yuan-Xuan, Ma Er-fong, and Huang Yang-Ming in the men’s competition; Lee Chang-Chao and Chao Ting-Ying in the women’s competition. Wong of the Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering won the Gold in the middleweight, black belt category. Ma of the Department of International Trade won the Sliver in the flyweight, black belt category. Huang of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering won the Bronze in the featherweight, black belt category. Lee of the Department of Aerospace Engineering won the Silver in the bantamweight, black belt category; Last but not least, Chao of the Department of International Trade won the Bronze in the finweight, color belt category.

All medalists put down their achievement as a result of hard work and strict practices before the competition. Won, whose ankle had even been injured before the match, was surprised but pleased with his Gold. Prior to the contest, he practiced hard with his teammates who worked on certain moves with him so that he could strengthen his ankle. Apparently, all the blood and sweat paid off.

A second martial arts sport event that saw TKU to another height was the 2007 Kendo Collegiate Cup held last month. TKU won one Gold, two Silver and one Bronze medals.

The best performance comes from Liu Wen-ying of the Graduate Institute of Accounting, who won the Gold in the B group individual competition of 3rd Dan or above. This is her third gold when playing for TKU in the past three years, and yet she sees some more room for improvement in terms of her skills and stamina. For this, she practices as much as and wherever she can, so for example, she goes to other places outside the university in order to have enough practice. At this competition, she was

very proud of her teammates who are usually younger than she is. Despite their age, she said that their fighting spirit was as good as that of anyone else’s.

Other medalists in the individual competition include Wu Yi-horng of the Department of Architecture, winning the Silver in the men’s B group individual competition of 3rd Dan or above, Lu Yue of the Department of Japanese, winning the Silver in the women’s non-Dan individual competition, and Tu Chu-Wei of the Graduate Institute of Japanese winning the third place in the same category.

In the team competition, TKU women’s team won the third place in the accumulative point system category and the second place in the knock-out system category. The men’s team did not fare that well as they won the six place in the point category and the third place in the knock out category. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )

Fig.1: TKU Taekwondo Team wins one gold, two silver, and two bronze medals at the 2007 Collegiate Taekwondo Cup. The medalists are (from left to right) Chao Ting- ying, Lee Chang-Chao, Wong Yuan-Xuan, and Huang Yang-ming.

Fig.2 :TKU Women’s Kendo Team also brings home a Silver and a fourth place in the individual competition. Lu Yue (left) wins the Silver in the non-Dan competition, while Tu Chu-Wei (right) the third place in the same category.