Fort Lee Taekwondo Star Qualifies For USA Junior National Team

Fort Lee resident Merissa Pico continues to accomplish great things in the sport of Taekwondo, recently making the USA Junior National Team for the third year in a row.

Pico, who is originally from China, trains at on Lemoine Avenue, as reported by Patch in May, under the tutelage of Master Alvin Bernard. Pico is happy with the results and her well-deserved success after such a tough road.

"It was great just to reclaim my spot," Pico said. "And because I trained really hard, it was just gratifying that the hard work paid off."

Pico's most recent journey to success kicked off with a first place finish at the New Jersey State Championship in April, along with also coming in first at the New York State Championship. Pico also had to win the regional championship in Buffalo, N.Y. in May, which she did. That win led her to an exciting tour of the U.S.

The mission continued in San Jose, Calif., where Pico had to place in the top four to make it to a four-competitor fight-off at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, where a win would qualify her for the national team.

Pico accomplished all of the above thanks to equal parts hard work and passion. The training, however, was not easy.

"I trained six days a week, ranging from three to five hours a day, which was a lot of classes and a lot of training," Pico said.

Bernard had Pico on a rigorous workout regimen.

"We increased training tremendously," Bernard said. "We did a lot of plyometrics like jumping, running and pulling, just to make sure she was very aggressive in the ring."

Pico is taking a mini-break currently but keeping in shape; training will pick up again at the end of August for the Pan American games being held in Las Vegas in October.

Bernard is extremely pleased with Pico’s accomplishments and said he is happy as long as she works hard and tries her best--something she definitely appears to be doing of late.