Six countries, along with hosts, Nigeria, will be taking part in this year’s edition of the Korean Ambassador’s Cup.
The countries that will be in Nigeria for the championship, organized by the Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria (KCNN) and the Nigerian Taekwondo Federation (NTF), are Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Mali and Niger. The championship, which is now in its second year, comes up in Abuja from Thursday, December 2, to Sunday, December 5, and will take place inside the indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium. The four days tournament will be declared open in a brief ceremony to be attended by the Minister of Sports, Isa Bio, and the Korean Ambassador, Park Young-Kuk. In a press statement, Young-Kuk expressed the desire to see the annual championship contribute to the development of taekwondo in Nigeria, as well as West Africa. “Today, with five continental unions, 191 member nations and around 70 million practitioners, taekwondo has become a truly global sport. Through which diplomatic, cultural and total multilateral relations between Korea and West African countries would be strengthened.” He also added that he hoped the competition will further promote taekwondo’s educational values and philosophy of fair play among athletes while sustaining the taekwondo spirit of humility, discipline, perseverance, as well as the defence of others and self.
The art
Taekwondo is an age-long, unique Korean traditional martial art dating back to over 2000 years, which consists of a variety of techniques using the hands and feet, as well as other parts of the body to kick, thrust and block as the players attack and defend themselves. At the December 5 closing ceremony, a total of 64 medals will be awarded to athletes in the various categories, while the overall best team will receive the ambassador’s trophy. Also, the best male and female athletes will be recommended for a training tour of Korea next year by the KCCN. “In addition, we’ll bring experienced coaches from Korea to train the Nigeria Taekwondo team for the London 2012 Olympics and a young taekwondo coach to also train primary and secondary school students in Nigeria,” said Young-Kuk.
Source:234next
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