Chau Tuyet Van (left) and her teammates compete at Singapore’s Southeast Asian Games in 2015. They won a gold medal (Photo: vietbao.vn)Hanoi (VNA) -Vietnam are taking part in the World Taekwondo Beach Championships, which willtake place on the island of Rhodes, Greece on May 5-6.
Athletes will have the opportunity to experience the sport for the first timein an outdoor area and will compete in 26 categories.
The inaugural event will not include a kyorugi (sparring) competition. Instead,it will feature recognised and free style poomsae (forms) competition and twobrand new categories of “freestyle dynamic kicks and breaking challenge” and “technicalbreaking”.
In big change for the tournament on the beach, athletes will compete in specialbeach uniforms featuring sleeveless shirts, tank tops, long-sleeve shirts,shorts, and long trousers.
The federation believes that the beach uniform would highlight the svelte,toned physiques of athletes which are often hidden under the regular taekwondouniforms and protective gear.
The 10-strong Vietnamese team will take part in different categories. They includetop athletes like Chau Tuyet Van, Nguyen Thi Le Kim, Nguyen Thien Phung, HoThanh Phong and Le Thanh Trung, who are well known in the sport.
“We have achieved gold medals in many tournaments for both juniors and seniors.We have trained a lot indoors and on the beach over the past two years to getfamiliar with the new and strange formula of the upcoming tournament,” saidhead coach Nguyen Thanh Huy.
“And we still need a big effort to maintain our peak performance in Greecebecause it is a tournament recognised by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).It also marks an important milestone for Vietnamese taekwondo, as our team willcompete at this year’s Southeast Asian Games in August,” he said.
The championships set the course for the Association of National OlympicCommittees (ANOC) World Beach Games that will be held in San Diego in2019.
“We are always looking for diversity in our sport, and we see beach taekwondoas a new opportunity to take our athletes out of the arena and into thesunshine,” WTF President Chungwon Choue was quoted as sayingon worldtaekwondofederation.net.
“Having inaugurated beach taekwondo championships, we expect taekwondo to goonto the programme of the first World Beach Games in the US in 2019 –offering yet another venue for our athletes to shine,” he said.
Speaking with reporters before leaving for Greece, world poomsae champion Vansaid the team were pleased and excited to have the chance to perform at thefirst world championships on the beach. It would be a chance for her andteammates to catch up with the rest of the taekwondo world.
She hoped that she could bring home a gold medal from such a beautiful country.
“There are some difficulties for us. They are new categories organised for thefirst time and good preparation is needed for rival teams. However, we will tryour best there. Vietnam have only 10 athletes but we will complete our targetof two gold medals,” said coach Huy.-VNA
VNA
