Six young Rocky Mountain Martial Arts students continue to get tournament experience on Saturday by traveling to Livingston and competing in the Paradise Valley Taekwondo Championships (PVTC).
The PVTC is one of Montana’s oldest tournaments and hosted by Master Dan Williams of Livingston Taekwondo is also one of the most professional invitational tournaments in the state drawing competitors from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Canada. These are the ingredients that make a highly competitive tournament and this was no exception.
All six RMMA students finished in the trophy rounds and had to fight hard to do so. Trophies were awarded to first, second and third, with consolation medals going to fourth place.
Montana Parker and Kaiden Gardner were the top trophy winners with Montana winning first in forms and second in sparring, losing by one point in the last ten seconds. Kaiden found tough competition in the forms competition but almost ran away with it in the sparring division with a first-place finish.
The other four RMMA students fought their hearts out and all managed to stand on the awards podium with third-place finishes in both poomse and sparring — Fahad Alhuzaim, Kaden McGillen and Ethan McGillen in the 8th gup yellow belt division, and Emma Milasevich in the 6th gup green belt division.
Next on the agenda will be at the Montana Tech HPER Complex on June 1. RMMA is hosting this years’ MTA State Taekwondo Championships. The State Championships offer many competitions and opportunities in one day.
“The MTA has accomplished many great things over the years and each year, the MTA is able do more for the Montana Taekwondo Community and our athletes as they strive for excellence,” state president Master Scott Becker said. “Over the past year we have been able to provide approximately $5,000 in scholarships to athletes and coaches competing at the U.S. Open and the National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships. And in addition to our many programs within Montana (the Referee program, competition clinics, and much more), we are excited to be able to provide the state with access to the latest Taekwondo technology thanks to our recent purchase of the TrueScore electronic scoring system (five rings worth) that by year’s end will have already been featured at a half dozen events all across Montana.”
The tournament will score true champions in each division. There will also be fight offs for a place on the Montana junior and cadet teams. The competition will be in sparring, poomse and the very difficult sport poomse.
— Submitted by Master Jim Miller
