As part of its efforts to support sports development in Nigeria, Embassy of Republic of Korea has agreed to sponsor for Nigerian taekwondists to the 5th World Youth Taekwondo Camp holding in Seoul next month.

The camp, which is organized by the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation (TPF) in partnership with the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), is aimed at providing the world youth with high-level taekwondo training and education of Taekwondo spirit.

The athletes - Olusola Sunday Olowookere, Ifeanyi Chukwu Obiora, Ganiyat Oluwatobi Idrees and David Imohabasi Daniel Ndem have been nominated by the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF) to be part of the exercise holding in Seoul and Muju.

According to NTF President, George Ashiru, the camp would help to expose the athletes to world-class training under the guidance to practitioners.

“We are glad that this is coming at this time when we are also preparing for the World Youth Olympics holding in China next year. 

This camp will indeed help our athletes and prepare them for future tournaments and aid them in their quest to make the country proud. With this kind of expose, it will also increase our chance to do well in major competitions. I wish the athletes well and we are also grateful to the Korea government for this gesture,” Ashiru said.

Also, NTF Vice President, Margret Binga, believes the camp would help to improve the knowledge of the athletes, while she also expressed appreciation to the Republic of Korea embassy for supporting the federation in its efforts to develop the sport in the country.

Like Binga, NTF board member, Mohammed Garba described this development as a sign of good things to come, saying, “The new board knows its onions and we are hopeful that things will take shape in few years to come.”
“We are glad that this is coming now and the athletes are chosen based on merit and we hope that this kind of gesture would continue for us to give all our athletes opportunity to sharpen their skills in the sport,” Garba said.

Among the objectives of the camp is to educate the athletes on Olympic values and ideals, as well as provide them with a chance for exchanges in sport and culture and understanding diverse cultures among the participants.

Besides the training, the athletes, which will be drawn across the globe, will visit Kukkiwon and also tour Jeonju Hanok Village and other places to experience Korean traditional culture.