(November 19, 2016) -- A day after narrowly missing out on the podium, Team USA earned its first medal of the 11^th WTF World Taekwondo Junior Championships on Friday when Joshua Liu took bronze in the men's -63kg division in Burnaby, Canada. Liu was also a bronze medalist at the 2014 Cadet World Championships and used that experience to propel himself to the podium on Friday. 

Firing out of the gate, Liu began his day with a convincing 20-1 point gap victory over Nicaragua's Carlos Kasper Silva, followed by an 11-7 win in the round of 32 against France's Axel Lupori. As the battles grew tougher, Liu showed his worth by beating Italy's Simone Alessio, 5-4, in the round of 16 and then earning a trip to the medal round with a 12-10 triumph over Thailand's Nuchit Rakyart in the quarterfinals.

In his semifinal match against Russia's Nikita Pushanko, Liu fell behind early and was forced to take chances to close the gap. Pushanko landed two three-point head shots in the first round and extended his lead to 8-0 by the end of the second period. In the third and final round, Liu scored a beautiful four-point turning head kick to Pushanko's jaw to make it 8-4, then followed up with two successive punches that scored to bring him to within 9-6. However, a final head kick by Pushanko as Liu pushed forward in the final moments sealed the victory, 12-6.

(Watch replay of Joshua Liu's semifinal)

(See post-competition interview with Joshua Liu)

Pushanko went on to earn the silver medal after dropping a 4-0 decision in the final to Iran's Amir Mohammad Bakhshi. The other bronze medal was earned by Turkey's Ferhat Can Kavurat.

Elsewhere on Friday, Team USA's Starla Santana advanced to the round of 16 in the women's -55kg class with a 7-5 win over Thailand's Nattavipa Intarasombat, but lost her next fight, 3-2, to Sweden's Alyssa Goransson. China's Lijun Zhou won the gold medal, Croatia's Kristina Beros took the silver, and the two bronze medals went to Iran's Mobina Babalou and Poland's Natalia Nikliborc.

In the men's -59kg division, Derrick Kwak, Jr. lost in overtime in the round of 32 to Kazakhstan's Sagynysh Shymyrbay. The gold medal was won by Turkey's Hakan Recber with Morocco's Omar Lakehal taking the silver, while Korea's Woo-Jin Choi and Russia's David Nazaryan earned the bronze medals.

Logan Weber lost her opening match in the round of 32 in the women's -52kg division by a score of 8-0 to Korea's Eun-Chong Lee. Medalists in that weight class were Chinese Taipei's Chia Ling Lo (gold), Russia's Ekaterina Kvartalnaia (silver), Lebanon's Laetitia Aoun (bronze) and Turkey's Ikra Kayir (bronze).

Team USA is back in action on Saturday with female light middleweight (-59kg) Trinity Sullivan, female middleweight (-63kg) Ceana Rodriguez, male light middleweight (-68kg) Connor Giddens and male middleweight (-73kg) Joshua Wilson

Live-streaming for Day 1 ~ Day 5 [Semi-finals and Finals]
Watch on WTF website and WTF YouTube Channel.
Day 1 (Nov 16): Opening Ceremony: 17:00 ~ 19:00 (Vancouver Time) 
                          Semi-finals & Final: 19:00 ~ 21:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 21:00 ~ 22:00 
Day 2 (Nov 17): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 20:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00 
Day 3 (Nov 18): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 20:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00 
Day 4 (Nov 19): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 20:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00 
Day 5 (Nov 20): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 19:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00

World Junior Taekwondo Championships Schedule