A 10-member taekwondo team from Uzbekistan arrived in Korea on July 22, 2009 to receive an intensive taekwondo training at a Korean university in Busan in preparation for the World Youth Taekwondo Camp scheduled for Aug. 6-11 in Seoul and Muju, North Jeolla Province.

On July 20, a 21-member Russian taekwondo delegation arrived at Incheon International Airport before traveling to Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, for the team’s intensive training at the two-year Jeonju Vision University. On the same day, 11 athletes from Kazakhstan also arrived in Korea to undergo an intensive training at the Busan campus of Dong-A University in Busan.

Seven other countries are scheduled to send their young athletes, aged between 14 and 17, to Korea for their respective free training at Korean universities until the opening of the World Youth Taekwondo Camp, which is jointly organizing by the World Taekwondo Federation and the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation. The seven countries are Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Cambodia, Laos, Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Several teams continue their training after the camp.

“On the occasion of the World Youth Taekwondo Camp, about 100 athletes from 10 countries will undergo intensive training at Korean universities until the opening of the camp, which will serve as a good chance for the foreign athletes to share taekwondo and Olympic spirits with Korean players,” said an organizer.

About 250 people, including 160 young athletes and three Olympic medalists, from 37 countries are expected to participate in the inaugural World Youth Taekwondo Camp. Several presidents of the WTF member national associations and WTF Continental Unions, along with several IOC members, are to attend the camp.

Among the participating countries will be Niger, Tonga, Nigeria, Singapore, Lebanon, East Timor, Israel, Morocco, Slovak, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Cambodia, and Paraguay.

Two athletes with a disability, who competed in the 1st WTF World Para-Taekwondo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan on June 10, 2009, are also invited to the camp.

The camp will feature a junior friendship competition on Aug. 9 at the Bandibul Gymnasium in Muju, which will serve as a rehearsal for the taekwondo competition of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

Under the topic “How to Practice Olympic Values through Taekwondo,” a seminar on the practice of OVEP (Olympic Values Education Program) will take place at the Olympic Parktel in Seoul on Aug. 6, which is expected to draw several IOC members.

On Aug. 7, WTF President Chungwon Choue will make a special lecture on “the Propagation of Olympic Spirit through Taekwondo” for the camp participants at the Yeche Cultural Center in Muju. The special lecture will be followed by an introduction of OVEP by Dr. Ju-ho Jang, chairman of the Korean Olympic Academy. On Aug. 8, young athletes will have a time with Olympic medalists in Muju. [By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]