South West Zonal Chairman, Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, Tayo Adewalure, has hailed the International Poomsae Seminar and Dan Grading which held at the Indoor Sports Hall at the National Stadium, Lagos, and highlighted the future potential.
The seminar ended on Sunday.
Following a training session on Thursday and Friday, the Dan Grading session of the seminar began on Saturday under the supervision of Grandmaster Pius Ilukhor, the 1987 African taekwondo champion and Ki Hong Kim, President, World Taekwondo Masters Union, in partnership with the NTF.
The Dan promotional test, which held on Saturday and Sunday, saw some participants t promoted to a different belt or an advanced stage of the black belt.
“The seminar has been successful. We saw the impact and we are benefitting a lot from it, very successful, really,” Adewalure told the press.
“It’s going to hold every year now, but there’s a bigger one coming up in October, which will involve other countries in Africa.
“The whole idea is to standardise our players and try to improve the coaching and methodology. The event in October is called the Taekwondo Masters’ Course and Examiners course. It is an advanced form of the programme we just concluded trying to make you an instructor and at the same time, an examiner.
“This will help all the black belts in Nigeria have the ability to promote their own students. You don’t just train people and hand them belts, you must be an examiner, so there will be an Examiner Course, and Masters course.”
On the benefits Nigerian participants enjoyed as hosts of the international programme, Adewalure added, “Nigeria is getting a lot of concession because we hosted the international programme in Africa. So, as Nigerians, we are paying $250, as a non-Nigerian, you pay $450.
“For the seminar, participants are to pay N10,000, and for the grading, we were also given concession because Grandmaster Pius and Korean Grandmaster Ki Hong Kim negotiated for us. The normal grading is supposed to cost $50, but we were required to pay $30.”
