The anchor in her life

Claire Kim has mastered the competition once again.

The Huntington Beach resident not only sought to, but did, defend her individual title on Aug. 4 at the USA Taekwondo National Poomse Team Trials at Cox Pavilion Arena at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. And she earned a second gold medal in a separate category.

Kim, also known as “Master Claire,” won gold in both the womens’ 19-30 age group and pairs’ division.

The 26-year-old teamed with Anthony Nguyen of Arizona to win gold in the pairs’ division.

By taking the titles, Kim advances to compete for the U.S. at the world championships in Inchon, Korea, Nov. 2-4.

Kim also won gold in her division and earned a spot on the U.S. team last year and went on to compete at the world championships.

“I’m very proud and honored to win gold again,” said Kim, who owns and operates Victory Martial Arts in Huntington Beach. “I worked so hard for this competition and wanted to keep the title.”

Kim, born and raised in Germany, a 2003 graduate of UCLA and Surf City resident since 1997, has 20 years of training under the guidance of Grandmaster Jung-Kon Kim, her father.

Two years ago, she was the 2005 international gold medalist at the first Women’s L.A. Open.

In preparation for the team trails held earlier this month, Kim said she trained for up to two hours a day, sessions that followed 12-hour days of teaching martial arts to a student body of more than 200 at her studio.

“Taekwondo has been a major part of my life,” she said. “It has been an anchor in my life allowing me to relieve stress, practice discipline and focus, while giving back to our community.

“As a leader and mentor to hundreds of local kids, I trained very hard to defend my title at this year’s team trials in Vegas. It is my goal to inspire kids to work hard and never give up And of course, to see how far I can push myself.”