Taekwondo

Tokyo Olympian Trương Thị Kim Tuyền (left) competes and wins a taekwondo gold at the SEA Games 31 in May in Hà Nội. Tuyền is one of the fighters found and developed from the National Age Groups Championship. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The National Taekwondo Age Groups Championship-CJ 2022 will be held at the HCM City's Military Zone 7 Gymnasium on July 7-14.

The tournament will see the participation of more than 1,000 athletes and coaches from 43 teams nationwide.

Athletes will compete in three age groups 12-14, 15-17 and 18-20. For the two latter groups, electronic equipment will be applied to ensure fairness.

This championship is the first event for young and junior taekwondo athletes re-organised after many postponements and cancellations because of the pandemic over the last two years.

According to Vũ Xuân Thành, general secretary of the Việt Nam Taekwondo Federation, the tournament is one of the key events in the national competition system.

It is a source to provide talented athletes for the national youth squad and the national team.

Việt Nam will compete in several events, such as the world youth championship in Bulgaria later this month and the Asian youth championship in early August in HCM City.

Thành also revealed that the federation was working on a plan to push Việt Nam's taekwondo to develop stronger in the near future.

An intensive review and selection will be held to pick the best national team athletes. They will receive strong support to improve their technique to look towards the world level.

Thành said currently, taekwondo has strongly developed in Việt Nam. However, many countries in the world also invest in this martial arts, leading to huge difficulty for Việt Nam to grab high results internationally.

Thành said to make the mission successful, the federation needed hands from enterprises like CJ, which has been accompanying Việt Nam's taekwondo for many years.

A CJ sponsorship contract with Việt Nam Taekwondo Federation was signed in 2017. Since then, the group has helped to pay salaries for South Korean coach for the national team.

The company also sponsored expenses for uniforms, accommodation and transport for the team to have training courses in South Korea. Bonuses for Vietnamese athletes who grabbed high international results were also given.

CJ is a South Korean conglomerate headquartered in Seoul. It comprises numerous businesses in various food and food services, pharmaceutics and biotechnology, entertainment and media industries.

Thành said the cooperation between the two sides brought significant results, including a slot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 1 gold and 1 silver from the 2021 Asian championship, and nine titles at May's SEA Games 31 to be No 1 in ASEAN.

Lý Hồng Phúc of Việt Nam fights against Chaichon Cho of Thailand in the men's 68kg final at the SEA Games 31. Under CJ's sponsorship, Việt Nam's taekwondo team earned remarkable results at the regional sport meets in May in Hà Nội. VNA/VNS Photo

Taekwondo is a South Korean form of martial arts which came to Việt Nam more than 60 years ago.

It has become one of the major martial arts in the world, with continental and regional meets such as the Olympics, Asian Games and SEA Games. 

In its debut in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Việt Nam made a big bang with a silver medal from Trần Hiếu Ngân.

Earlier, Trần Quang Hạ took home a gold at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. VNS