DUSHANBE, November 22, Asia-Plus - Participation of taekwondo-powered Tajikistan in the 15 ^th International Taekwon-Do (ITF) Tournament “Peter the Great Open Europe Cup” that will be held in St. Petersburg from December 9 to December 10 is under still under the question for financial reason, Mirsaid Yahyoyev, the president of Tajikistan’s Taekwon-Do (ITF) Federation, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

“We are currently seeking sponsors,” said Yahyoyev, “Our team participated in this tournament six times and it won the main cup twice, in 1992 and 2000, while in other competitions it won small cups.”

“In order to hope for winning the cup the Tajik team should present 12 athletes,” Yahyoyev said, noting that nearly US$10,000 are needed for participation of the Tajik team in the tournament.  

The International Taekwon-Do “Cup of Peter the Great” tournament has been hosted annually since 1990, and Europe Cup The tournament has been held as the Open Europe Cup since 1996.

The International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) was founded in 1966 by Major-General Choi Hong Hi six years before his exile from South Korea in 1972.  The ITF is basically an extention of the Oh Do Kwan of the late 1960''s.  His first visit of good will to North Korea was in 1980, when he introduced Taekwon-Do there.  Being a private Canadian Business Corporation for most of it''s existance, it has claimed it is one of the two major international Taekwon-Do organizations, the other being the public Olympic International Federation called World Taekwondo Federation or WTF.