Local Taekwondo students bring home world titles

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) – A group of Taekwondo students in Northeast Arkansas managed to win big at a worldwide competition.

The American Taekwondo Association in Jonesboro recently competed in the world championships in Phoenix, Arizona from July 23 to July 28.

The school brought home around 30 medals spanning across several ages and categories, but two students brought home the gold and world championships.

Karolina De Los Santos is a 16-year-old Jonesboro native who won the championships in creative forms, xtream forms, and traditional weapons.

Avril Olmedo is also 16 years old and came from Paraguay to train with the Jonesboro school. She won the title in combative sparing.

Los Santos said that she made a lot of sacrifices to get to where she is.

“Well, in total, I’ve been competing for a world title for two years,” Los Santos said, “I’ve taken a lot of time out of my daily activities to do this. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices.”

Olmedo said she had to go against girls from all over the world who had been training all year for this tournament and she had very strong opponents.

Mariela Baez said they were excited for the students.

“We are so excited and we are so proud of our students here as a school, that two of our students were able to come back with the title of World Champion,” Mariela said.

Their instructor, Francisco Baez, who is a champion himself, said that he enjoys watching his students compete and win.

“It makes me a lot more happy, seeing all the kids compete. See the kids win, seeing the teenagers win so that’s always the fun part too,” Francisco said.

Both Los Santos and Olmedo want to compete and win more titles and teach the next world champions.

“For me, my goal is to win a title in each category, but for me, the actual goal is to make another world champion,” Los Santos said.

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