Abuja – No fewer than 200 athletes and 30 coaches have arrived in Lagos for the 2015 Korean Ambassadors Taekwondo Championships scheduled to hold at the Teslim Balogun Stadium from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12.
George Ashiru, President, Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the championships which would have three different events, would see 26 teams from across the country in attendance.
He said that the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, would be the special guest at the event.
According to Ashiru, the event will help fine-tune the country’s athletes in preparation for the 2016 Olympic qualifier scheduled to take place in Morocco in February.
“It’s a three-in-one event; there is a team tournament, creative poomsae which is from movement to music and jumping over obstacles; it’s very complex to score and judge, but very interesting to watch.
“The event is a high-level opportunity for our athletes to get use to the current equipment, to keep their fitness level for the qualifiers.
“The idea behind this is to introduce other formats of taekwondo that people are not familiar with.
“We are trying to bring them into this tournament so that people with other skills other than just fighting, can also demonstrate their ability,’’ Ashiru said.
He said that the tournament, sponsored by the Korean Embassy with support from LG Electronics and Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO) Ltd, would have the men and the women team events.
“When we say team, its five people on each side competing at the same time, in order one, two, three, four till the fifth person fighting his or her opponent in the other team.
“We are bringing this format back after 29 years; the first time we had this format in Nigeria was in 1986, so we are bringing it back because it is a unique format.
“This is contrary to the format where we fight according to states using individual format and this connotes the old sports festival format.
Ashiru commended the sponsors for providing the equipment of the championships as well as prizes for the winners which include microwave ovens, smart phones and DVD.
He said: “The equipment is being provided by the Korean embassy direct from the manufacturers and we have supplemented them with the ones the federation just received from the world federation two weeks ago.
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“They are all Olympic style equipment.” (NAN)