Carson City’s Duong earns silver medal

Carson City’s Chi Duong matched his highest finish ever in the 10th Tae Kwon Do Poomsae World Championships in Lima, Peru, completed on Oct. 1.

Duong earned his second silver medal in his Under-65 age group in the 2016 Championships, matching the silver medal he won in the 2014 World Championships in Mexico.

Duong placed second to Korea’s Hee-do Kim in the competition in which points are earned for accuracy, speed, power and presentation.

Duong out-pointed Iran’s Ghoran Delshad and Great Britain’s Peter Johnson, who tied for third.

“Kim was new to the age group,” said Duong. “He was champion in the last world championships in the younger age group. It was pretty close, but he scored more points than I did.

“This competition was more competitive than the 2014 Championships. There were only six competitors in my age group then, but 16 this time.’’

Duong, who was 64 when the qualifying for the world championships began, is now 65 and will move up to the 65-over age group in the next World Championships, which are set for Taiwan in 2018.

Duong isn’t only setting his sights on the 2018 World Championships, but the 2020 Olympics in Japan. He has never tried to earn a spot in the Olympics, though he has won the U.S. title in his age division four times and also won a Bronze Medal in the 2013 World Championships.

Duong was one of two U.S. athletes to win silver medals and the United States finished with its most medals ever in a World Championships — 20. In addition to his silver medal and one by a female athlete in the Women’s Under-65 division, there were four gold medal winners and 11 bronze medal winners.

The 20 medals were the most earned by any of the 50 countries who sent athletes to compete. The effort by the U.S. team was praised by U.S. head coach Dan Chuang, whose team finished third overall in the competition.

“This was the largest World Poomsae Championship in the 10-year history of the event,” said Chuang in a release. “To come away with the highest medal count among all countries and third place in the standings at such an intensely competitive event shows that we are among the best in the world as a poomsae nation. I’m grateful for the efforts of all the coaches, athletes, staff and the USAT office for their hard work leading up to and during this trip. Most of all, I’m proud of how the team came together to support each other despite being from different schools and areas of the country.’’

Duong is a Grand Master in Tae Kwon Do and runs the Chi Kwan TaeKwonDo school in the Carson Mall in Carson City.