Tobin second at world championships

Cody Tobin battled his way through contestants from all corners of the world to bring home second place at the American Taekwando Association’s 2008 World Championships in Little Rock, Ark., last month.
More than 13,000 competitors from North and South America as well as Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa were in Little Rock for the championships during the final week of June.
During world championship competition, the Nebraska state champion won his first five matches to put him in a finals match where he would battle to become world champion in the first degree black belt, 14-16 year old division.
Although Tobin lost the championship match, second place was a great feat. Just a short while ago, a trip to the world championships seemed like a far stretch for the 16-year-old.
Last April, Cody had two major surgeries within seven days of each other. He had a ruptured appendix and he also had a twisted intestine that was caused by the ruptured appendix.
“The injuries set Cody back quite a bit and gave him a late start on tournaments,” Cody’s instructor Kim Johnson said. “He had lost a lot of weight and when he started competing again he had a lot less time to earn points than most others.”
Beginning in August, Cody’s father Terry took him to more than 14 tournaments to start earning points. He needed enough points to crack the top 10 in the national rankings to earn a trip to the world championships.
Cody won eight of the 14 tournaments he went to throughout the season while battling back from the injury. This along with four second-place finishes was enough to earn him ninth place in the rankings and a trip to the world championships, where he capitalized, bringing home second place.
Although the emotions ran high and the memories of competition will never leave Cody, what he enjoyed most about his time in Little Rock was getting to meet other people.
“Worlds is the best time to meet other people,” Cody said. “You get to meet a variety of people from all over the world and that was probably my favorite aspect of the competition.”
When asked what’s next, Cody said he hopes it’s more of the same.
“I want to do it all over again. We’re going to start going back to tournaments and building the points back up to get back to worlds.”
The only difference is that this time Cody is hoping to be building points as a second degree black belt. The teenager will be tested by Johnson on Tuesday at the taekwondo center in York to try and make the leap.