Taekwondo Team Earns Honors

The Harvard World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) team placed third on Saturday in the Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational at Cornell University.

Harvard sent 19 participants to the tournament, which involved about 250 students competing in both form and sparring events.

Individually, David D. Lee of Harvard Law School and Daniel A. Schwartz of Harvard Medical School placed third and second, respectively, in the men’s form division, which involves set patterns of movement. Captain Kathy Chang ’02 placed third in women’s form.

Team members also competed in sparring, which involves teams of three—each of which has a lightweight, a middleweight and a heavyweight member. Same-size members from competing schools fight each other and receive points for striking their opponent’s chest protector or lightly hitting the head area. The team that places highest in two out of three matches wins.

The Harvard women’s black belt A-team, comprised of Jeanie C. Yoon ’02, Chang and Wellesley student Charity Maclay, placed first in sparring. The Harvard men’s color belt B-team, including William J. Wright ’03, Calvin K. Huang ’02 and Manoj Ramachandran ’04 placed second.

“It always surprises me what a passion people have for tae kwon do,” Yoon said. “After the tournament everyone is really pumped up to train.”

The WTF form of tae kwon do is one of two Olympic-recognized martial arts. Six interested black belts founded the Harvard team two years ago. The team has placed at several collegiate tournaments over the past couple of years.

“[This] tournament was a great bonding experience,” Chang said. “The team showed amazing sense of community and spirit.”

The overall points that the team received at Cornell will count toward the Ivy Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo League (INCTL) Cup. The Cornell tourney is the second of six that count toward the standings.

“We have amazing potential for only being here two years,” Chang said. “Ideally we could win the INCTL cup.”