Calendar
The first 10 athletes were selected for the 2012 Junior World Taekwondo Championship Team on Saturday during the first day of the USA Taekwondo Junior World Championship Open Team Trials at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The final 10 members of the team will be determined on Sunday to round out the U.S. team that will compete at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, April 4-8.
Qualifying on Saturday in the female division were finweight Kelsey Junious (South Windsor, Conn.), flyweight Alexandria Carino (Bakersfield, Calif.), bantamweight Gigi Gil (Camarillo, Calif.), featherweight Cheyenne Lewis (Elk Grove, Calif.) and lightweight Tiffany Khuu (Diamond Bar, Calif.).
The male division qualifiers were welterweight Malik Taylor (Littleton, Colo.), light middleweight Alec Coopman (Kapolei, Hawaii), middleweight Matthew Morales (Miami, Fla.), light heavyweight Brandon Ivey (Ashburn, Va.) and heavyweight Drew Thompson (Maple Valley, Wash.).
Junious, Gil, Lewis and Thompson are all members of the 2011 U.S. Junior National Team, and Lewis and Gil both medaled at the last World Junior Championships in 2010. Lewis won gold in the flyweight division and Gil captured bronze in the finweight class.
The second half of the team will be selected on Sunday.