Taekwondo will be included in the European Youth Olympic Festival 2025 https://www.eyof.org , an event for junior athletes from the European Olympic Committees which will be hosted by North Macedonia. In the next weeks, ETU will discuss the terms and conditions with EOC.
The European Qualification Tournament for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been relocated to Nurnberg (GER). The event will most likely take place in the week of 24 February 2024.
The Sport Director Ioannis Mouroutsos informed the Council that for 2024 further steps will be taken to standardise the G1 events in Europe.
Weigh in times, publication of the draws, random weigh in and also publication of the ranking on which the seeding is based will be published at specific predetermined times.
Also, in 2024 a Grand Prix event for Cadets and Juniors will be on the ETU Event Calendar. This event will be open for the top ranked athletes from the European Ranking, as well as for athletes that obtained a quota at the ETU Clubs or Multi Games. Also each MNA may send their top ranked athletes.
The Council decided to amend the quota policy, allowing the top ranked athletes to obtain direct quota for the European Cadet championships, Under 21 and Grand Prix. Also for Poomsae athletes, it was confirmed that the athletes that won quota at the European Poomsae Cup in Sweden qualified directly for the 16th European Poomsae Championships in Austria. The outline for this event will be updated this week.
An important policy shift was confirmed by the Council with regard to Referee education and selection. The role of the Competition Supervisory Board members will be more focussed on evaluating referees and the Council unanimously approved that at European Championships only the best referees of Europe should officiate. ETU will host minimum 2 training camps a year for its European referees in order to train them.
Cadets
Games Chairman Mr. Ali Sagirkaya discussed the Cadet Height categories competition method and answered questions of Council members. The results of the World Championships in Sarajevo were positive but in order to further develop the method, an evaluating with coaches and MNA officials will be done later this year.
Finally, the Council installed an ad hoc Committee in order to advise the Council on matters related to Kukkiwon and the Kukkiwon presence in Europe.
Also, this ad hoc Committee chaired by Vice-president Slavi Binev, will explore the possibilities to offer trainings for black belt and color belt examiners in Europe in order to make sure that each belt has the same value in Europe.
PSS
Finally, the Council had an in depth discussion on the PSS system in general. Pro’s and con’s from the current system were discussed and the Council expressed its strong wish for World Taekwondo to provide manufacturers with guidelines and building blocks to built the PSS system. In a perfect world, several manufacturers should be able to built a compatible PSS system with the possibility for athletes to wear the PSS brand of their choice during a competition.
ETU
