RHINE-RUHR, GERMANY – Demonstrating poise, passion, and precision throughout the 2025 FISU World University Games, Menlo Women's Taekwondo incoming freshman Kaitlyn Marie Reclusado added to her growing collection of international medals with a gold in the Mixed Pair Poomsae category and two bronze medals in Women's Individual and Team Poomsae. Canada's Sophia Fokas, another Menlo incoming freshman, was also in action, winning multiple rounds of the Women's -53kg Kyorugi bracket.

Medals Aplenty
The first United States athlete to medal at the Games, Reclusado reached the final round of the Women's Individual Poomsae, the performance of prearranged sequences of movements that demonstrate fundamental Taekwondo techniques and skills, where her intense and dynamic routine was rewarded with an 8.516 score good for third place overall behind only Denmark's Eva Eun-kyung Sandersen (8.732) and the Republic of Korea's Haeun Jung (8.633).

It was not long until she joined with Sunghyun Eric Gun for Mixed Pair Poomsae, delivering a resounding 8.933 effort with truly impressive coordinated sequences that pushed the duo past the Republic of Korea's Minjae Kang and Dahyun Han (8.682). Reclusado and Gun made history by becoming the first-ever pairs gold for the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association, the national governing body for collegiate Taekwondo in the United States.

The following day featured more exciting action for Reclusado as she combined with Gahui Kim and Lana Moraleda for another bronze for the United States in Women's Team Poomsae, this one by way of an 8.416 mark that featured more difficult acrobatics and brilliant choreography to have the trio not far back of Chinese Taipei (8.849) and the Republic of Korea (8.749).

A Standard Of Excellence
No stranger to shining on grand stages, Reclusado collected the 11th gold medal of her career in addition to increasing her overall medal count to 23 with the trio of honors in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany. The native of Daly City previously won gold medals in the Pan American and U.S. National Championships, doing so individually and with her team both in poomsae most recently at the 2024 Pan American Taekwondo Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Early Offense
The opening matchup in the Women's -53kg Kyorugi had Fokas storm back from an initial 11-7 defeat in the first round with consecutive victories of 17-10 and 10-2 in Rounds 2 and 3 versus Poland's Lucja Oleszczuk. A gold medalist at both the 2023 WT President's Cup - Pan Am and 2019 Pan American Championships, Fokas followed up that 2-1 win by outscoring Ecuador's Miley Domenica Guanga Nazareno 16-4 in points earned by attack and cruising to a 2-0 triumph (9-2, 10-3) in the Round of 16. The strong start would lead Fokas to a quarterfinal bout with eventual gold medalist Qing Guo of China where the latter prevailed 2-0 (10-2, 12-5).

Held biennially, the FISU World University Games are in their 32nd installment with 114 nations competing in 18 different sports.