Athletes Attend Training Camp

The Fiji Taekwondo Association is sending four athletes to Honiara in the Solomon Islands tomorrow for a World Taekwondo funded two-week training camp in preparation of the Olympic qualifiers in April.

Speaking to SUNsport, President Nimesh Narayan said the training camp will teach the selected four skills and knowledge on par with Olympic standard.

“We are taking three from Fiji and the other one is Richard Lin who lives in Australia,” Narayan said.

“We have a trial in April at Honiara, Solomon Islands to determine those that will qualify for the Olympics.”

National coach Sanghyun Ra said the training camp is a South Pacific development programme organised by World Taekwondo.

“Kiribati, Tonga and Papua New Guinea will also be present at the training camp,” he said.

“The camp gives us an opportunity to prepare for the Olympic qualifiers with a fighting chance to be in the Olympics.”

“I’m planning to take two athletes, one male and one female to the Olympic qualifiers,” he said.

“I’m also trying to include an athlete for the Paralympics.”

Ra said the athletes will learn various taekwondo combinations at the training camp.

“We had achieved a total of four medals at the recent Solomons Pacific Games,” he said.

“We won three silver and one bronze medal.

The more competition athletes get will assist them gain experience and potentially win gold medals in future regional games.”

Ra said they are wary of the Tongan athletes they have been exposed to more vigorous competitions while studying in New Zealand.

“We want to send students to Korea to gain experience and upskill their fighting capabilities,” he said.

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