The who’s who of the Para Taekwondo world gathered this afternoon for Para Taekwondo’s first-ever Paralympic Head of Team Meeting and were personally welcomed by World Taekwondo President Dr. Chungwon Choue.

 

CHIBA, Japan (31 August 2021) - Representatives of many of Para Taekwondo’s finest athletes were on hand at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe to get the final details ahead of the sport’s debut at the Paralympic Games on Thursday.

 

World Taekwondo President Dr. Chungwon Choue provided welcome remarks before personally greeting each delegate individually.

 

“I am so happy to be here”, he told the room, “and to see so many of you here – especially representatives from our Refugee and Afghan teams.”

 

Representatives from 37 teams were on hand to learn about Paralympic procedures, technical rules, and other relevant details ahead of Thursday’s opening matches.

 

Hiroaki Onohara, the Sport Manager at Tokyo 2020, provided welcome remarks before Technical Delegate Chakir Chelbat provided a detailed account of competition rules.

Other speakers included Para Taekwondo Committee Vice-Chair and Games Chair Usman Dildar and World Taekwondo Medical Chair David Jeong.

 

The random draw to assign seeds to the unseeded athletes – what every athlete was waiting for with anticipation – came at the end of the meeting. National delegates were called up alphabetically by NPC to draw a ball which seeded their country’s athlete.

 

To see the results of the draw, please click https://www.worldtaekwondo.org/competition/view.html?nid=138325&mcd=M02&sc=in.

 

For more information, be sure to follow the World Para Taekwondo Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WorldParaTaekwondo.

- By Lee Reaney