DAPHNE, Ala. —Students from Daphne and Bay Minette competed at a national martial-arts competition in Austin, Texas on Feb. 11-12.

The Lone Star Open — a national event that included participants from all over the United States as well as Canada and England — included students trained at a United States Taekwondo-affiliated center. The national home office for United States Taekwondo is based in Daphne, where six of the nine competitors train under the direction of John and Deborah Kim. The other three competitors train at a Bay Minette location under Ryan Gillikin.

Local students competed in various events that included traditional empty-hand forms, traditional weapons, creative weapons, musical weapons and sparring.

There were an estimated 1,000 competitors for the two-day event held at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Austin with more than 3,000 spectators in attendance. Listed below are the results from the local competitors.

• Jharni Lim (Spanish Fort): 1st place in Musical Weapons, 3rd place in Traditional Weapons, Grand Champion Finalist.
• Kristen Smith (Spanish Fort): 3rd place Sparring, 3rd place Creative Weapons, 5th place in Traditional Empty-Hand Form and 5th place in Traditional Weapons.
• Zachary Hatfield (Fairhope): 1st place in Traditional Empty-Hand Form, 3rd place in Musical Weapons and Grand Champion Finalist.
• Hayden Hatfield (Fairhope): 5th place in Musical Weapons, 6th place in Sparring.
• John Kim (Daphne): 1st place in Musical Weapons, 2nd place in Traditional Weapons, 2nd place in Creative Weapons, 3rd place in Traditional Empty-Hand Form and Grand Champion Finalist.
• Deborah Kim (Daphne): 2nd place in Traditional Empty-Hand Form.

John Kim, the association director, said, “These types of competitions at the national level are very exciting for us to be involved with … they have developed and produced some of the finest martial-arts practitioners in the country that we now see on TV and at the movies.”

Kim said that “just a few years ago on this competition circuit a young martial artist named Taylor Lautner competed and went on to success in the popular ‘Twilight’ movie series!”

This event was part of a national circuit of competitions these competitors — and others from the local centers — plan to participate in during the 2011 year. Fund-raising events and plans are currently underway to attend events in Daytona Beach, Fla., Atlanta, Ga., and Orlando, Fla.

For more information concerning these and other upcoming martial-arts events, individuals can contact the United States Taekwondo home office at 251-621-9933.