Fifteen-year-old Mingus Union High School sophomore Thinura Ginige was named the 2024 North American Sport Karate Association World Champion in the age 14 and 15 Class AA Black Belt Korean Form Division on Jan. 16 during an awards ceremony in Chicago.
“On a personal level, it’s definitely brought my confidence up, knowing that all the years worth of work paid off, which is a great feeling,” Ginige, who has been practicing martial arts since he was 8, said. He has been training younger students at KC Family Tae Kwon Do in Cottonwood for the last two years as well.
“For those unfamiliar, NASKA is the premier global organization for sport karate competitions, attracting the best martial artists from around the world. Achieving a world title is an extraordinary accomplishment — especially for someone from a small-town school in Arizona like ours,” KC’s Family Tae Kwon Do posted on Facebook on Jan. 17. “This is a rare and remarkable milestone for our community.”
Ginige trains for approximately two hours a day, seven days a week. In October 2023, he joined the American Karate Association’s team and trains with them several times a year in addition to competing in national tournaments.
“[Ginige] does have an innate athletic talent, but he knows how to focus in ongoal, and then he just uses that to push forward,” Master Karen Conover said. “He does traditional martial arts, but also he does extreme movement, so he flips and does crazy acrobatics along with the martial arts. And that’s super inspiring to our kids. It makes them also want to learn more … he’s definitely got a growth mindset.”
Ginige said that he learned the ability to set goals and to dedicate himself to them from competing with NASKA over the last several years. After ranking fourth in the world in 2023 in both the Extreme Forms and Creative Weapons categories, reaching No. 1 was his main goal for 2024, and he also set minor goals to incorporate new strategies and add to his form at each tournament.
Ginige said he favors music by Lil Yachty and Chance the Rapper for training sessions. “Usually it’s music to get you energized, get you still hyped up,” Ginige said. “Because it’s important to have an energetic mindset, because the way you train is the way you’re going to perform.”
“Taekwondo is kind of like when you win a boxing world title, there’s people trying to take that title from you and you have to keep it,” Ginige added. “So keeping my world title and getting more world titles are my next major goal … My minor goals are to keep just improving as much as I can.”
Since receiving his world championship title, Ginige has earned four state titles in Pro Musical Forms, Weapons, Forms and Traditional Forms at the 2025 Arizona Martial Arts Referee & Rating System Championship on Jan. 25 in Gilbert. His 10-year-old brother Vinuja Ginige also won the state championship in Pro Weapons and Traditional Forms.
“I’ve always wanted to be an engineer to create things,” Ginige said of his future plans. “Doing exactly what my mom and dad do, designing roads, building cities, sewers and being the building block of where people live.”