For the first time in its history Taekwondo Europe hosts an online Poomsae event. The whole world can participate. Sakis Pragalos, President of Taekwondo Europe comments: “This global crisis has hit multiple countries hard. We hope that the virus will quickly be exterminated and that a vaccine is available soon. In the meantime, we want to offer all global Taekwondo practitioners an opportunity to compete online in this Poomsae competition”.
The idea was born when it became clear that all events worldwide were being postponed. Many athletes see now the opportunity to compete at a global stage vanished. Taekwondo Europe then thought to do an online event, where athletes send in videos and International Referees evaluate the performance in real time. Sakis Pragalos: “We have seen already an amazing online event hosted by Glenn Culbert in Northern Ireland. The host of the Northern Ireland Open Poomsae & Kyorugi Championships hosted an online Poomsae event as the regular event was postponed due to the virus outbreak. The responses were amazingly positive”
The event will be open for both WT License holders as well as non-WT License holders. “The idea is to be all inclusive. Non-WT license holders pay more entry fee because we have to do more administrative work to have those athletes added. The entry fees are low (regular entry fee is 10 euros and 20 euros for Non WT license holders) because we do provide the winners with medals and certificates. We will send them to the winners by post. And also, we are currently discussing with SimplyCompete and Martial.Events what they can do for us regarding the scoring of the athletes. We want the scoring to be as transparent as possible” according to Mr. Pragalos.
A small team of Poomsae experts consisting of Lisa and Edina Lents, Abilio Costa, Mieke Tapia, WTE Referee Chairman Mustapha Moutarazak and WTE Games Chairman Ali Sagirkaya are discussing with Kenneth Schunken (Director-General of Taekwondo Europe) the details of the competition and the outline will be published within days.