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Organisers list 300 athletes for Lagos International Taekwondo Classics

The Lagos International Taekwondo Classics scheduled for the Teslim Balogun Stadium will feature 300 athletes drawn from Niger Republic, Mali, Ghana and host of this year’s All Africa Games, Congo Brazzaville, as well as Nigeria

taekwondo1The Lagos International Taekwondo Classics scheduled for the Teslim Balogun Stadium will feature 300 athletes drawn from Niger Republic, Mali, Ghana and host of this year’s All Africa Games, Congo Brazzaville, as well as Nigeria.

The taekwondoists, made of 212 male and 88 female will be aiming for the laurels at the N3.5m prize money three-day tournament organized by the Lagos State Taekwondo Association under the auspices of the Lagos Sports Classics and sanctioned by the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF).

Speaking on the classics, NTF President, George Ashiru, said the programme has helped the country develop in the sport, especially in the poomsae event.

“Through the classics, we have made headway in the poomsae event, which has given us three gold medals at international tournament. This became possible through the efforts made by our national coach, Jim Beom Kim.

“This year has also ignited the interest of the athletes in Poomsae and this is a major plus to the classics. Despite the initial postponement, we still have the presence of teams from Mali, Niger Republic, Ghana and Congo Brazzaville.

These teams are our possible contenders for medals at the 2015 All Africa Games and it is good that we can use this competition to assess them as well as tune up our athletes for the world championships holding in Russia,” Ashiru said.

The Commonwealth Taekwondo Union (CTU) Vice President explained that outstanding athletes from the classics would form the second tier of the national team.

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