DUSHANBE, October 16, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan’s taekwon-do (International Taekwon-do Federation or ITF) championships concluded in Dushanbe on October 15. 

More than 217 athletes from all regions of the republic participated in these competitions.  Dushanbe athletes with 19 golden, 17 silver and 27 bronze medals took the first place.  Sportsmen from the northern province of Sughd took the second place, wining 2 golden, 2 silver and 10 bronze medals.   Sportsmen from Gorno Badakhshan won one silver and two bronze medals and athletes from Khatlon won one bronze medal.  The team from Gorno Badakhshan participated in the championships for the first time.  

The main objective of this competition was to select athletes to participate in the Asian ITF Taekwon-do Championships that will be held in New Delhi on November 9-14 and the European Cup in St. Petersburg set for December 9-12. 

Mirsaid Yahyayev, the head of Tajikistan’s ITF Taekwon-do Federation said in an interview with Asia-Plus that the Tajik national team was supposed to participate in these representative competitions, “but unfortunately for lack of funds we cannot send our sportsmen to these competitions.”

According to him, they have applied to potential sponsors but have not yet received any response from them.  “I believe our sports will had shown excellent result if they had participated in the New Delhi and St. Petersburg contests,” Yahyayev said.