THE 24th SEA GAME OF TAEKWONDO
The 24th SEA game was held in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand for the period of December 6 to December 15th. Particpated by 11 countries, taekwondo game was held in Vongchavalitkul Hall, Vongchavalitkul University for the three days of 12th to 15th. The game was managed by the organizing committee under supervision of the Asian Taekwondo Union and the supervisory board was represented by 5 nationalities: Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand chaired by Dae-Won Kang, a vice president of the ATU. Noteworthy was that the game was free of written protest against referee decisions. The game may as well be remembered in taekwondo game history in this regard. Thailand led the game with 8 gold medals followed by Vietnam with 3.
A Victory Ceremony for the 24th SEA Game of Taekwondo
Taekwondo
Medal Tally
Following is the excerpts from the comment on the game made by Dae-Won Kang, the chairman of the supervisory board.
“On be half of the supervisory board members, Mr. Lim from Singapore, Mr. Pitak from Thailand, Mr. Seonarko from Indonesia and Mr. Kumar from Malaysia, it is a great honor for me to make a comment on taekwondo game of the 24th SEA game.
To begin with, we would like to express our deep appreciation to people in Nakhon Rachasima who welcomed us and supported the game. There are four major ingredients for the game to be successful: fair referees, good players, civilized spectators and efficient organizing committee to name them. They are four pillars for a successful sports game.
As we all have witnessed throughout the three days there was not a single written protest against the referee decision. This is a very rare case not only in taekwondo but also in other sport. This is a monumental game to be recorded in taekwondo history and we render our highest respect to all referees served this game. As we all have enjoyed and absorbed in, the level of playing skills of players improved greatly to world class level which make prospect for wining medals in the coming Beijing Olympic very high. Spectators showed a highly civilized manner which was quite impressive. Through this game, we confirmed that taekwondo could become an interesting sport for spectators and a long lasting sport in Olympic game.
We believe all these things were possible by the dedication of the organizing committee. Organizing committee of taekwondo game showed a high caliber organizing skills across the board from the on the spot registration in the airport to the excellent playing facilities with enough warming up mats. However, more sophisticated scoring system and more frequent information exchanges among the participating countries during preparation stage would have made the game far more complete.
On this occasion, the supervisory board expresses heartfelt thanks to the Thailand taekwondo association who played a central role for organizing this taekwondo game. In addition, as you are all aware of, ATU has spared no efforts for the development of taekwondo of South East Asia countries so far and will do the same in the future.”
