Hopewell Vallery Central High School student Melina Boutris stands with judge Michael Couloucoundis and her poomsae partner Liam Gallagher at the New Jersey Taekwondo State Championship in March. (Photo by Eva Ries).
A Hopewell Valley Central High School student won gold at the New Jersey Taekwondo State Championship in March.
Freshman Melina Boutris and her partner Liam Gallagher took first place in won the gold medal in Juniors Pairs Poomsae at the competition held in South Plainfield. Their victory qualifies them for the National Taekwondo Championship, set for this summer in San Jose, Calif.
Poomsae (forms) are a defined set of movements incorporating blocking, kicking and striking techniques. In the pair event, athletes synchronize their movements and are critiqued by a five-judge panel on technical accuracy and presentation.
A foot injury forced Boutris to take a year-long break from Taekwondo. She started training again at Victory Taekwondo in Pennington last October.
The 15-years-old has practiced Taekwondo for 10 years and is a second degree black belt.
In 2010, she started participating in competitions and won a silver medal in sparring at the 2010 New York State Championship. A year later, she won the National Championships as part of a cadet poomsae team of three girls from Eagleville Taekwondo in Norristown, Pa., where she trains competitively under coach Master Giamo.
