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| World Taekwondo (WT) President Choue Chung-won gives a greeting during a conference call for the organization's council meeting at the WT headquarters in Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of World Taekwondo |
By Jhoo Dong-chan
The City of Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, has been selected to host the next World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships slated for April 2022, the World Taekwondo (WT) said Wednesday.
The announcement was made after the taekwondo organization's conference call with its council members the previous day.
"This pandemic has really changed our lives. I sincerely pray that we'd continue to stay healthy and safe," WT President Choue Chung-won said during the conference call. "Video conferencing has become the new norm for us, and offers a sustainable and cost-effective way for us to remain connected, long into the future."
The WT Poomsae Championships is a biannual event where players compete in 36 different disciplines. About 2,000 athletes and officials from 60 counties participated in the last event held in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2018. This year's event was supposed to take place in Denmark next month, but was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goyang said it would invite North Korea to send a taekwondo demonstration team while expanding the event by inviting practitioners from countries that have never participated in the event.
Along with its decision to select Goyang as a host city for the next WT Poomsae Championships, the WT has also chosen Sofia, Bulgaria, to host the 2021 WT World Cadet Championships and Dakar, Senegal, as the 2022 World Junior Championships & Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Qualification Tournament.
IOC President Thomas Bach also sent a video message to the WT upon the organization's decision on the day.
"We will need all our solidarity, creativity, determination and flexibility to get ready for the post-corona world," Bach said.
"For that, we will all need to make sacrifices and compromises, this Extraordinary Council meeting is therefore a timely opportunity for you to set the course for the future of World Taekwondo to get ready for the day after this crisis is over. Thanks to your governance reforms, your impressive track-record of modernizing your sport and your important humanitarian work. World Taekwondo can build on a strong foundation for this future."
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