Tae Kwon Do artist Roman Nawrocki spars with his Argentinean opponent at the National Taipei Cultural University during his 80 kg match. (Photo by Bill Millios)
Tae Kwon Do fighter Nawrocki ousted from competitionby Chris Kaftan on September 9, 2009 For American Tae Kwon Do fighter Roman Nawrocki, only one day mattered. It was either win, or go home medal-less. In his first-ever international competition, Nawrocki gave it his all, but came home empty-handed in the 80-kilogram Tae Kwon Do competition Wednesday at National Taiwan Cultural University in Taipei. Nawrocki entered the arena to raucous cheers from American fans in the stands above the mat and walked to his corner with his Bible in his hand. "Seeing the American fans really inspired me," Nawrocki said. "All week long, there have been Taiwanese fans in the stands, so to see Americans really gave me a boost." Nawrocki faced a challenge in Ariel Chavez, of Argentina, and in the opening round, he started off with an offensive flurry of kicks to throw off his opponent's timing. However, it didn't work to his advantage, as Chavez was able to sidestep Nawrocki's sparring attack. Relying on his superior quickness against the stocky Argentinean, Nawrocki was able to mount several offensive attacks on his opponent, but was thwarted by blocks. Nawrocki returned the favor by blocking several of Chavez's kicks as well. Spin moves were Nawrocki's forte as he focused on spinning kicks to Chavez's midsection. After the first round, the match was scoreless. During the first break, coach Daniel Briones emphasized to Nawrocki to space himself from Chavez in order to complete his kicks and earn more points for each kick to the midsection. At the start of the second round, Nawrocki scored the first point of the match with a kick to the midsection and followed up with a series of cycling kicks, all a blur of legs into the Argentinean. Chavez countered with a kick to tie the match, but Nawrocki did a swinging kick to regain the lead prior to the end of the second round. In the final, decisive round, Nawrocki again went on an offensive attack on Chavez, focusing on the Argentinean's midsection with his kicks, but Chavez used his burly frame to brush off Nawrocki. "I wasn't able to finish my kicks because [Chavez] kept close to me," Nawrocki said. Chavez earned four quick points with kicks to the side of Nawrocki's midsection. Nawrocki was insistent that he blocked the kicks. "The referee didn't agree with me," he said. "I was thwarting the kicks, but the referee apparently thought otherwise." With that decision, Nawrocki lost his match, 5-3. In Tae Kwon Do, if a martial artist loses his match and his opponent loses his next match, he is out of the competition. That's what happened with Nawrocki as Chavez lost his next match to Pei Wei Huang, the eventual silver medalist. Nawrocki had no disappointments. "I'm still a champion." He said already is looking forward to Athens 2013. "I'll be ready," he proclaimed. |
 Tae Kwon Do artist Roman Nawrocki spars with his Argentinean opponent at the National Taipei Cultural University during his 80 kg match. (Photo by Bill Millios)
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