Morris Plains Youths Bring Home the Gold from National Taekwondo Championship

The USA Taekwondo National Championship took place in Chicago from July 3 – 7. Apex Tigers Martial Arts studio located in Florham Park and Millburn sent 23 youths to the competition, including three Morris Plains residents.  

They went up against more than 4,000 competitors from around the country. The tournament included poomsae (form), board breaking, weapons and sparring events.

Team ATMA (Apex Tigers Martial Arts) brought a total of 26 medals home to New Jersey, eight of which were gold. Three of the gold medals were won by Morristown residents. Here’s a look at who went and how they did:

• Abraham Chang, 14 of Morris Plains, placed second in Sparring and third in Form
• Jake De Guzman, 9 of Morris Plains, placed first in Breaking and Form
• Daniel Shao, 8 of Morris Plains, placed third in Form
• Joe Lidon, 10 of Morristown, placed first in Form
• Alex Lidon, 8 of Morristown, placed first in Sparring
• Jada Sefah, 12 of Morristown
• Jordan Sefah, 14 of Morristown, placed first in Sparring and third in breaking
• Joshua Sefah, 10 of Morristown
• Matthew Adamowitz, 10 of Madison
  
• Natalia Arena, 9 of Madison
• Samantha Demakos, 11 of Madison, placed third in Breaking and Form
• Shorin Kohli, 12 of Madison
• Atharva Talpade, 14 of Madison, placed second in Sparring
• Anna Maria Didier, 10 of Short Hills
• Fernando Didier, 10 of Short Hills, placed third in Breaking and Form
• Lauren Liu, 10 of Short Hills, placed second in Form and Breaking and third in Sparring
• David Liu, 8 of Short Hills, placed third in Form
• Eric Gun, 7 of Florham Park, placed first in Sparring and Form
• Riya Gupta, 11 of Florham Park, placed third in Sparring
• Jaiden McPherson, 7 of Chatham, placed first in Sparring
• Whye Li Ong, 7 of South Orange, placed second in Forma and third in breaking
• Hayden Pun, 7 of Livingston, placed third in Breaking and Form
• Sidhant, Srivastava, 9 of Livingston

They earned their way to the national event by competing and medaling in the New Jersey State qualifying event earlier this year. For more information, go to Apextigers.com