Carson City man to vie for world taekwondo title

Carson City’s Chi Duong came away with a silver medal in the World Taekwondo Poomsae championships in Lima, Peru two years ago, but he’s looking for the gold medal this year when he again competes in the World Championships set for Taipei, Nationalist China on Nov. 15-18.

Two years ago, he competed in the 61-65 age group, but will represent the United States in the 66-up age group in these championships.

“I am going to get No. 1 this time,” said Duong, a Vietnam native who had the Chi Taekwondo school in Carson City until recently retiring.

Duong placed second to Korea’s Hee-do Kim in the 2016 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 in those championships.

“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.”

Duong won a gold medal in his age group in Salt Lake City earlier this year.

Duong will leave for Taipei in early November and is paying his own expenses to compete. The national team doesn’t have the resources to pay for its qualifiers to compete in the championships and Duong passed on the idea of fund-raising to support his trip.