Taekwondo

Vietnamese police-taekwondo martial artists perform at the announcement of the 2024 Asian Open Police Taekwondo Championships on October 29 in Hà Nội. VNA/VNS Photo Nam Sương

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam will host the 2024 Asian Open Police Taekwondo Championships in December in Quảng Ninh Province.

The Ministry of Public Security announced that the event, its first international tournament ever, will be held from December 6 to 9 and is expected to attract many competitors from across the continent.

There will be two branches of competitions for the martial artists fighting under the slogan of 'The Strength of Police! Police Taekwondo who protects the Safety of World Citizen!'

The Asian Open Police Taekwondo Championships is open to all officers, fighting for medals in kyorugi (combat), poomsae (performance), self-defence, breaking and a comprehensive team competition.

In the Asian Police Taekwondo Festival, competitors will be children, junior athletes and senior artists. They will compete in kyorugi, poomsae, freestyle poomsae, taekwondo gymnastics, breaking and in a team competition.

The organising committee said the Open Championship would be an opportunity to celebrate the unity of police taekwondo around the world, helping to raise the profile of the World Police Taekwondo Federation in pursuit of the health, safety and happiness of the world's people

Throughout the event, patriotism will be at the fore, promoting national self-defence, along with the educational values of Police Taekwondo.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Long, Deputy Minister of Public Security, said that in recent years, the People's Public Security's physical training and sports work achieved many important results, contributing to building a strong force to serve the cause of building and protecting the nation.

The 2024 Asian Open Police Taekwondo Championships would be an opportunity to affirm the bravery and talent of the police officers. At the same time, it would strengthen friendly cooperation between the Vietnamese police and forces across Asian countries and the world.

The event is expected to strengthen the participanting delegations' relationships and development in terms of sport training while encouraging the practice of sports and taekwondo in particular among the police force, he said.

The tournament is also one of activities to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the People's Public Security Traditional Day (August 19, 1945-2025) and the 20th anniversary of the All-People Defence Festival (August 19, 2005-25).

Currently 44 delegations have confirmed their participation, with organisers keeping the registration open until November 13.

To ensure the quality and fairness of the championships, the World Police Taekwondo Federation has already organised a four-day training session for domestic and international referees at the Bắc Ninh Sports University. VNS