DUSHANBE, March 12, Asia-Plus — The 14th Republican Taekwondo (ITF) Championships were held in Dushanbe on March 10-11.
Mirsaid Yahyoyev, the President of Tajikistan’s Taekwondo ITF Federation, said in an interview with Asia-Plus the championships had also been a tournament to select athletes to represent Tajikistan in the World Taekwondo Championships that will be held in Slovenia from April 23-30.
On the republican championships, Yahyoyev said that more than 100 taekwondo players from all regions of the country had taken part in the championships. The contests were conducted in three age categories: children; youth and adults.
Tajik taekwondo players have usually showed good results in various international tournaments.
The International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) was founded in 1966 by Major General Choi Hong Hi six years before his exile from South Korea in 1972 and seven years before the WTF. His first visit of good will to North Korea was in 1980, when he introduced Taekwon-Do there. It is one the two major international Taekwon-Do organizations, the other being the public Olympic International Federation called World Taekwondo Federation or WTF. The WTF though only operates competitions and has nothing to do with curriculum. For that, the WTF only recognizes the Kukkiwon (World Taekwondo Headquarters). General Choi was the primary figure in the development of Taekwon-Do during the 20th century and headed meetings with the senior Taekwon-Do masters to unify a large number of the Korean martial arts schools under the name Taekwon-Do. He is also responsible for providing Taekwon-Do with its name, which was agreed upon on April 11, 1955. He is acknowledged by practitioners of ITF Taekwon-Do as the founder and father of Taekwon-Do.
