This year 2 students from IIT Roorkee Puneet Kumar – ECE 4th Year and Jyoti Chopra - Chemiical 3rd Year represented the Uttarakhand state team in National Taekwondo (Poomsae) Championship, the 7th Senior National Poomsae Championship held at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur. The students departed on 31st August for the tournament that was to commence on 2nd. “Competing with the players at national level. We got to see the defined and perfect tactics and beauty of Taekwondo in players from all the Indian states, services, defense etc.”, the winning players remarked. There were 3 rounds in each category: preliminary, semifinal and final. Out of all states and services teams, only top 12 are selected for semi-finals and then top 8 in semi-finals make it to the finals. Jyoti Chopra (B.Tech III yr, Chem.) participated in the senior girls (under 30) individual category and made it to the finals. Also, Puneet Kumar (B.Tech IV yr, ECE) and Jyoti Chopra participated in pair poomsae and finished 6th out of 24 state teams and some services teams like I.T.B.P. Though Uttarakhand could not get any medal in the nationals this year, but such a performance of Uttarakhand after a long time was highly appreciated. The team accredited the coach Mr. Anand Krishna Yadav, Black belt (6th dan), International Refree and 2011 5th Commonwealth Taekwondo Championship Bronze medalist, for the remarkable performance.

Despite having an excellent result to show at the state and national levels, the sport of Taekwando remains a neglected entity in IITR. The team still practices with their excellent coach in the garden behind the Saraswati Mandir. Some concrete changes on behalf of the administration are necessary to facilitate efficient training of the players. This should begin by providing them with a covered space with proper equipments and safety support.