207 players expected for taekwondo tournament today

As many as 207 players will commence their participation at the Korean Ambassador Taekwondo tournament on Friday. The two-day events is being organised by Oman Taekwondo Committee (OTC) in coordination with Korean Embassy in Muscat. The third edition of the tournament will feature many competition categories including Pomse and Kerogi for Cadet, Junior and General (both genders). Many of the centres and clubs of taekwondo will take part in the tournament including Falcon Taekwondo Club, Hurang Taekwondo Club, Majan Taekwondo Academy, Sur Taekwondo Academy, Challenging Taekwondo club, ROP Sports Association (Taekwondo team), Gulf Taekwondo Club, Professionals Taekwondo Academy, Muscat Stars Taekwondo Centre and Ibri Youth Taekwondo Club. The official opening ceremony of the taekwondo competition will be held on Saturday from 11:30 am to 12:30 with a special taekwondo demonstration by the Kukkiwon (World Taekwondo headquarters, South Korea). The event also coincides with the culture festival titled ‘2019 Korea Week’ organised by the Korean Embassy as part of the Korean National Day celebrations in Muscat. Dr Khalid al Mahrami, board member of OTC, said that the committee has completed all the logistics and technical preparations to begin the event at the main indoor hall of the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. “A dedicated thanks to the Korean Embassy office in Muscat for this initiative. This event will be held in all the GCC countries and some Arabian cities as part of the initiative raised by the Korean Embassy office to develop the taekwondo sports in the region and boost it among different levels,” Al Mahrami added. “We had recently organised a referee course which registered participation of many umpires. The domestic and foreign umpires learned the latest updates of the rules and regulations as per approved by the international federation. The four days course included different topics and theoretical subjects delivered by Professor Master Yu from Korea and followed by practical sessions. The course focused on different areas including the support for referees to develop their umpire skills. We recommend all the participant referees to follow the latest updates and practice prior to any tournament or championship,” the head of technical section said. The technical meeting, weighing of the players and the draw of the competitions were held on Thursday at the meeting hall of the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. “This tournament is a good opportunity for all players specially cadet and junior players to show their best skills and could join to represent the national teams in near future. National team head coach Ali Tajik will attend the tournament to monitor the players,” he added.