On March 26 and 27, the TKU Tae Kwon Do Club entered the 4th annual Hung Kuang Open Taekwondo Championship. In total, over 400 students from more than 50 universities around Taiwan took part. The tournament drew fierce competition, and as in so many such events, TKU claimed a trove of medals, including one gold and six silver. In the 67kg women’s black belt category, TKU claimed double glory by winning both gold and silver. Moreover, the TKU team came first in the women’s black belt group category, to the delight of third year history student and team captain, Huang Yong-yun: “Everyone’s hard work has been rewarded. The excitement of being the number one women’s team is indescribable!”

The gold medal winner, Lai Jing-rong, said that there are still many aspects of her technique and strategy that can be improved. She added that she was happy to come up against her teammate in the finals, “because no matter how I fight, we’ll still end up winning.” The five silver medals went to: third year Department of Education student Wu Bing-yan, third year International Business student Luo Zi-qian, Department of Chemistry freshman Fan Sheng-hao, fourth year Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering student Ke Yi-wen, and fourth year Department of Economics student Yin Yi-jun.

When asked about the team’s preparation for the major championship meet in May, Yong-yun explained that they intend on increasing their weight training sessions to improve their endurance ability. “We hope to win even more medals in May!”

Meanwhile, on April 12, the TKU Kendo Club took part in the 35th Annual Kendo Championship. They earned third place in two separate categories. The captain of the TKU Kendo Club, Department of Spanish graduate student, Wang Pei-ru, noted that this year the club gained a lot of new members. Given their lack of official tournament experience, Pei-ru said, they performed really well and showed a lot of future potential.