Organisers of the second edition of the Chika Chukwumerije Sports Foundation (CCSF) International Taekwondo Open have staked N2.8m for the two-day tournament holding in Abuja this month. According to breakdown of the cash reward, gold medalists in eight events made of male and female will get N150, 000 each while eight silver medalists will cart home N100, 000 each while 16 bronze medalists will also get N50, 000 each for their efforts. Aside the cash reward, 200 athletes that registered for the champion will get equipment like uniform, kicking pads and skipping ropes valued at N1.7m. However, athletes and teams expected to compete at the championship have continued to hone their skills in readiness for the competition touted as one of Africa’s colourful and glamorous event. Among the foreign athletes confirmed for the tournament are current African champion and 2011 All Africa Games gold medalist, Mali’s Ismael Coulibaly as well as 2012 All Francophone Champion, Niger Republic’s Abdoul Razak Alfaga. Some of Nigeria’s national champions are Michael Obiorah, Vivian Ndu, Sunday Onofe, SegunOlushola, Omoowa Omoregie, Ezekiel Obazi and Chimaobi Igwenyere. Meanwhile, the number of entries for this year’s championship has been overwhelming as more than 340 athletes have been confirmed for the tournament. 36 competitors are from seven African countries including Mali, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Togo, Niger Republic and Cote D’Ivoire. Also, 24 Nigeria states, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Customs, Nigeria Immigration, six clubs and 23 individual registrations have been listed for the international tournament meant to be a fertile hotbed for discovery of future Olympians. According to the Chief Executive Officer/ Founder of CCSF, Chika Chukwumerije, efforts are being made to extend invitations to athletes from Europe in subsequent editions. “The goal is to get endorsed by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) in 2015. The CCSF Event Management team decided that it was better to work in phases to slowly build up key event management capabilities towards fully hosting the world in Nigeria. Phase one was to target the entire taekwondo community in Nigeria – from the states to the clubs, paramilitary, military and other interested individuals. We succeeded in doing this effectively last year, so we moved to stage two, which was to extend our reach to West Africa. So far, we seemed to have done a good job of reaching out to our West African colleagues. In the 2014 edition, we expect a few competitors from Europe and probably Asia to participate in our tournament. The final phase is to push for the tournament to become recognized by the WTF by 2015,” Beijing Olympics bronze medalist said.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 22:43:47 +0000
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