Pakistan to host taekwondo event in 2020

KARACHI: World Taekwondo has allotted Pakistan an international event for the first time, which will be held at the end of next year.

Pakistan Open Taekwondo Championships, carrying cadets, juniors and G-1 (senior) categories, will be held from October 24 to 30, 2020, in Islamabad.

“It is a big event and will benefit Pakistan a lot,” Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF) president Col Waseem Ahmed told ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

“It is an open event and I expect fighters from around 15 nations,” Waseem said and added that it would contribute to the federal government’s initiative to declare 2020 as year of tourism.

“We believe in tourism through sports,” Waseem was quick to add. He said that before filing an application for this event he had consulted the government and support had been promised.

“I had consulted with the government and I had been told that the state would help me in the venture,” the official said. He said it would help Pakistan’s fighters a lot if 600 to 700 of them earn Pakistan’s colour. “Featuring in an international event will give a lot of confidence to our players and it will in particular help them earn medal when we host South Asian Games in 2021,” Waseem said.

“It will help our officials and athletes and boost our organising capacity,” he said. “If we are able to conduct it smoothly then we can earn the right to host Asian Championships,” the official pointed out.

“Our referees, coaches and tehnical officials will get a lot of benefit. It will also enable hundreds of coaches to get jobs in various schools,” Waseem said. He said that the government should purchase equipment for them. “If the state purchases equipment for us it will be of great benefit as it is very expensive. We will return it after using it. I think it is not a big deal for the government. As far as other expenses are concerned we will seek sponsors and will try our level best to meet the requirement from various sources,” Waseem said. “Around 40 foreign technical officials will be given every kind of facilities free of cost besides giving them 100 US dollars daily allowance for around ten days,” he said. He said that he had started working already and hopefully it would be a good event if the state contributed.