Marina's Terry Tran brings home the silver

Seventeen year old Terry Tran, black belt competition member at Marina Cho’s Taekwondo Academy brought home the silver medal for his division at the USA Taekwondo (USAT) National Championships held in Chicago July 3–8, 2013.

The July 2013 competition was the largest taekwondo event in the world, attended by 4,190 athletes, more than 830 coaches, and 140 referees. Terry Tran and 13 year old black belt Vinayagan Odegard (also of Marina and Cho’s Taekwondo Academy) were among the competitors who qualified at the California State Championship and competed at the national level.

For Terry Tran and taekwondo athletes with Olympic 2016 goals, the USAT National Championships is a path to compete for a spot in the next USA Taekwondo Olympic team. The next summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Our Team CTA goal is to be in the USA Taekwondo National Team and to be taekwondo world champions. We saw many fighters from other states and learned a lot” said Master Jae Seong Lee, Cho’s Taekwondo owner and Team CTA coach. “I’m proud of Terry’s performance. Terry had to fight three times, and in the final few seconds of the match he lost by just 1 point” added Master Lee.

Because Terry will turn 18 at the end of this year, USAT rules had him competing in the 18 to 32 year old seniors’ division.

“It was my first time in the senior nationals, and I was not really expecting too much… everyone else seemed more experienced and competitors were a lot older than me, and competing at national levels for many years. I pushed hard and felt really good about making it to the finals,” Terry said.

Members of Team CTA of Cho’s Taekwondo Academy  are training in preparation for the 2014 USA National Championships next summer, which will take place in San Jose.

Terry and  Vinayagan, you make us proud!

-- story submitted by Cho's Taekwondo Academy