INDEPENDENT NEWS

High Hopes For NZ Medals At Taekwon-Do Champs

Published: Thu 19 Nov 2009 11:15 AM
November 19
Media release
High Hopes For NZ Medals At Taekwon-Do World Champs In Argentina.
Key members of the 45 strong New Zealand Taekwon-Do team have a real chance of becoming world champions at the ITF X Junior World and the XVI Senior World Taekwon-Do Championship at Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires) Argentina, on the 26th to the 29th of November says ITF Taekwon-Do World Championship 2011 Chairman, Nick Lourantos.
The team flies out on Friday bound for Argentina and while most of the attention will be on three time world champion Carl Van Roon, Lourantos says that Luke Thompson, Carolina Dillien and Mark Trotter are also top medal prospects.
“There is incredible depth in the New Zealand team, there are four world champions in their respective disciplines and we are hoping that wins in Argentina will help build New Zealand support for the World Championships which will be held in Wellington from the 10th to the 13th March in 2011.’’
“We are hosting the World Champs right here in Wellington due to the fantastic support of SPARC and the Wellington City Council and the event is expected to attract thousands of competitors and supporters from all round the world. “
“Two years ago, at the 2007 World Champs in Canada, New Zealand competed against 60 countries and the whole team performed exceptionally well, coming in third behind Argentina and Poland, bringing home 7 gold medals. “
Taekwon-Do is the most popular form of martial arts in the world with an estimated 180 million practitioners of the sport which has its origins in Korea.
“2011 is going to be a chance for us to showcase our country and our top Taekwon-Do students but in the next two weeks the team’s entire focus is on Argentina and bringing home medals .
We have made it easy for supporters to keep up with results here on twitter and we are confident that New Zealand will get in behind this great bunch of top sports men and women who are proud ambassadors for our country,” concludes Lourantos.
ends

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