Carson youth earns first degree black belt

Elijah Fajayan, a 10-year-old fourth grader at Seeliger Elementary School, recently earned his first degree black belt.

Fajayan trains at the Carson American Taekowndo Association and has trained for 2 1/2 years. The testing for the black belt consisted of two forms, self defense techniques, a weapons demonstration, two board breaks, two rounds of one minute each of sparring against two opponents and a fitness test requiring 180 impact strikes to a bag in three minutes, 35 pushups and 35 situps.

Fajayan also won the Nevada State sparring title in 2007 and has won multiple titles in nine tournaments so far this year.