President says more needs to be done

 THE weekend’s Oceania Taekwondo Olympic Qualifier was hailed a success using world class facilities but World Taekwondo Federation president Chungwon Choue, pictured, expressed disappointment at the non-attendance of many countries and the lack of spectators.

Only six countries including Australia  New Zealand and a refugee fighter competing under the  Olympic banner attended the event and Choue said in the future in terms of developing the code in the region, it would be pleasing to see many countries participating to qualify for any Olympic games.

Choue said in the world out of the five continental regions qualifying for Rio three regions have already qualified while two are yet to have their qualifying events.

The three qualified regions are Europe, Africa and Oceania while Asia and Pan-America are yet to have their qualifying events.

Choue said he would love to see the development of the code spread in the region so in future many countries can attend the Olympics.

“We have development funds for these five continental regions but again it depends on how these regions run their programmes and how best they utilise funds to develop the code in their respective regions,” said Choue.

Oceania Taekwondo president John Kotsifas said the code in the region was still developing with the code not played in smaller Pacific nations.

“We have plans to develop the code in the countries where the taekwondo is not played,” he said.

Kotsifas said they would love to see about 15 countries participating in the next four years.

The six participating countries were Australia, New Zealand, PNG, Vanuatu, Tonga and Solomon Islands.