County resident wins bronze

Thursday, May 15, 2008

County resident wins bronze

Achievement comes at World Junior Taekwondo Championships in Turkey

by Ted Black | Staff Writer

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Soon after finishing third in the finweight division of the World Junior Taekwondo Championships in Izmir, Turkey, last week, Accokeek resident and Gwynn Park High School freshman Olie Burton stood on the podium and proudly accepted his bronze medal.

‘‘When we walked to the podium, we were handed a plaque, flowers and then our medals,” Burton said. ‘‘Then we listened to the national anthem from each country. It was an amazing moment. I was so proud to represent the country as part of the Junior National team. It was a moment that I will never forget. I’m going to get ready to qualify for the Junior Olympic team in July in Detroit.”

Burton won his first four bouts of the tournament before suffering a heartbreaking 2-1 setback against eventual gold medalist Jeong In Chang of Korea in the semifinals. Burton led 1-0 heading into the last minute of the bout, then Chang landed a sharp kick to Burton’s face, worth two points. Burton tied the score late only to lose a point in the waning seconds for stepping out of bounds.

‘‘I knew going into that fight that it was going to be very close,” Burton said. ‘‘I was really nervous because I knew he was from Korea and that’s where taekwondo started. It was a real hard fight. I was ahead 1-0 until about 30 seconds left and he kicked me in the face. That hadn’t happened to me in a long time. It was just a strong, fast kick. I came back to tie it, but then I had a point deducted for stepping out of bounds.”

Burton had earned the right to compete in the medal rounds by edging Cem Kharaman of Australia, 3-2. That fight had been dramatically different from his first three bouts when he outscored opponents from Armenia, Cyrpus and Belarus by a combined score of 15 to negative one. He shut out all three fighters and his opponent from Belarus lost one point for holding.

‘‘The first fight was hard, because I was still getting used to the scoring,” Burton said. ‘‘It’s a lot tougher to score points in those fights because the kicks have to be clean. In the second fight against the kid from Cyprus, I was up 7-0, so they stopped the fight at that point [due to the Taekwondo mercy rule]. The next fight was tougher, but the ref deducted a point from the Belarus fighter for holding me.”

Burton, who trains under Patrice Remarck at the Remarck Sport Taekwondo in Alexandria, Va., spent several days at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs before making the long trip to Turkey on May 4. He began practice one day later and then stepped into the ring for his opening round fight on May 6.

Now Burton turns his attention to preparing for the USA Taekwondo Junior Olympic Championships, scheduled for July 3-6 at Ford Field in Detroit.

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.