Jennings Claims Bronze in London

Alexandrian Terrence Jennings is bringing home a medal from the London Olympics.

Jennings claimed bronze in the 150-pound weight class in taekwondo on Thursday at the ExCel South Arena 1 in London, defeating Brazilian Diogo Silva 8-5 on a late kick.

With the match tied 5-5 late in the third round, Jennings went for a head kick in the dying seconds of the match. Initially, the match official did not award the kick but Jennings’ appeal was granted, giving him three points, the match and a bronze medal.

Jennings was defeated in his first preliminary match on Thursday, falling to world No. 1 Servet Tazegul of Turkey, 8-6. Tazegul went on to reach the gold-medal match, which earned Jennings a spot in a repechage pool.

The 2004 graduate then defeated Hryhorii Husarov of Ukraine 3-2 to advance to a bronze-medal match.

In Olympic taekwondo, two bronze medals are awarded per weight class.

Jennings trained for many years at Remarck Sport Taekwondo in Rose Hill, but moved to Miami last year to train with the U.S. Olympic team.

The former Northern Virginia Community College student took to Twitter the day before his competition opened, writing “Thank you guys for all the support! It's be a great help. Love you guys ‪#weareusa u have made me feel like the ‪#peoplechamp.”

Jennings participated in the Opening Ceremony in London on July 27 and had his picture taken with NBA star Kobe Bryant, who is competing with the U.S. men’s basketball team.

Jennings celebrated his 26th birthday in London on July 28.

He started his journey into the sport through .