NY Army National Guard Spec. Nashayla Harper, an Albany resident, earns silver medal at national Taekwondo championship

LATHAM, NY (07/20/2018) New York Army National Guard Specialist Nashayla Harper, an Albany resident, earned a second place award in the 2018 Taekwondo National Championship at Salt Lake City, Utah July 2-9 as part of the All Army Taekwondo Team.

Harper, age 25, is an aviation operations specialist with the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade Headquarters. She won the silver medal in the women's light-weight class.

As a member of the Army's Taekwondo team, Harper participated with other athletes from the Army's World Class Athletes Program (WCAP). The program allows Soldier-Athletes to train and compete in their chosen sports and represent the United States at international competitions.

WCAP's head coach Master Sgt. David Bartlett said Harper performed extremely well at the national competition.

"I was proud Nashayla Harper got to the finals. She was on fire; she did very well," Bartlett said.

The team beat an Army record with six total medals in the July competition, two gold and four silver.

Harper will now go on to compete at the 2018 Taekwondo International games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in November.

A Korean martial art, Taekwondo combines elements of older Korean martial-arts traditions and other martial-arts practices.

Competitions occur during three 2-minute rounds. Since Taekwondo competitors score points by kicking and punching their opponents, it requires more skill than boxing, Harper said.

"As precise as boxers are with their hands, we have to be with our feet," Harper said in an interview with the Guard Times magazine in 2016.

Harper, who joined the Guard in 2014, said she took up Taekwondo when she was just three years old, and described the sport as a "family thing" for her.

Her mother Shaunelle Smith also competes in the sport, and her father Michael Harper racked up seven national championships, she said.

The Army team began training June 5 at Fort Carson, Colorado. Every year Soldiers apply to the All Army Taekwondo team and the qualifiers train with the WCAP Soldiers on post. The group of athletes prepared with high intensity workouts for the 2018 Taekwondo National Championship in early July and their hard work paid off, the coach said.

"I am very excited and impressed with our athletes. Looking back at my time with the team this is the best performance and medal count we have had in the history of Army Taekwondo. Last year we tied the most medal count from 1999 and this year we beat that," said All Army head coach Staff Sgt. Jonathan Fennell.

After the completion of the camp and national tournament, team members were selected by the coaches for the International Military World Council games, better known as CISM.

(This release was prepared with the assistance of the Army World Class Athletes Program)