27th July, 2014
The fifth edition of the Korean Ambassador’s Taekwondo Championship has been fixed for 12-14 September in Lagos.
The tournament is a joint project of the Korean Embassy, the Nigeria Taekwondo Black Belt College (NTBBC) in collaboration with Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF) and Lagos State Taekwondo Association.
As defending champions, the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps team will compete against teams within and outside Nigeria with 32 male and five female teams expected to compete at the three-day championship.
To be in tandem with what obtains globally, this year competition will adhere strictly to the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) guidelines to make it more exciting, while special awards will also be given to some pioneers of Nigerian taekwondo as well as former national presidents.
Meanwhile, in a bid to standardise the training and teaching methodology of taekwondo in Nigeria, the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF) will organise a four-day course cum examinations.
According to the President of NTF, George Ashiru, the programme is aimed at updating the knowledge of the coaches as well as groom top class instructors that would produce the next generation of athletes for the country.
“The NTF will organise an international training course for all levels of coaches and instructors all over the nation. It is the first attempt to standardise the training and teaching knowledge of our instructors in the last 20 years. Our new International Master Instructor and high performance coach from Korea, Kim Jin Beom will be conducting the four-day course and examinations on behalf of the World Taekwondo Headquarters, the Kukkiwon. My hope is that coaches and instructors from all the regions of Nigeria will update their standards instead of going abroad for similar training,” Ashiru said.
For the NTF helmsman, the exercise is part of the strategic initiative to uplift the game in the country. “The course is part of our strategic initiative for taekwondo, which is heavily dependent on having skilled coaches to produce the next generation of champions. The programme is open to all coaches, instructors and senior players of taekwondo,” he added.