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Published: 25 August 2017

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Published: 11 August 2017

Friday, 11 August 2017

The Press Conference for the upcoming World Taekwondo Europe Junior Championships, that will be held on 2-5 November in Larnaka, Cyprus, was successfully realized in the premises of the Cyprus Olympic Committee in Nicosia. Along with it, the 1st World Taekwondo Europe Beach Championships was presented since the Cyprus Taekwondo Federation took up its organization as well.

The local Organizing Committee delegation, represented by the President of the Cyprus Taekwondo Federation Phivos Christou, Mr. Angelos Sarpetas and Mr. Korellis presented the event, and all its operationals aspects in progress. The conference initialized with Mr. Christou's welcome speech who thanked all the sponsors of the event, the WTE President and all the Presidents for being there and continued with a speech by the WTE President Sakis Pragalos who gave the floor to the President of the Cyprus Olympic Committee Dinos Michaelides and the President of the Cyprus Sport Organization (CSO) Cleanthes Georgiades.

The WTE President showcased the numbers of the event, indicating that the participating counties come close to 50 and almost 1000 are expected to visit the island of Cyprus on the occasion of the event. "The inaugural European Beach Championships are been decided to take place in Larnaka, which already has the nessesary sport premises to support such an event. The first World Taekwondo Beach Championships took place last May in Rhodes island and was an instant success. The European version here in Larnaka as in Rhodes, will also be open for competing athetes from other sports as well. The two European events will take place simultaneously, which will facilitate the national teams travel expenses, it boost the touristic benefits of the area and of course it is much more sustainable in using the same resourses for two events." stated WTE President Sakis Pragalos who also presented the recent rebranding of the union, following the World Taekwondo and making the transition from European Taekwondo Union to World Taekwondo Europe. He closed his speech by expessing his contempation for Cyprus being the host of two European Taekwondo events and that everything will be ready on time to welcome the participants on the island, which despite November will still be in spring mood.

The President of the Cyprus Olympic Committee Dinos Michaelides stated: " It is an honor to host in Cyprus two championships of European level. We will give our best to be realized successfully." The President of the Cyprus Sport Organization (CSO) Cleanthes Georgiades noted:" I would like to thank Mr. Pragalos for his contribution in sports and his love for the island of Cyprus. I guarantee that I will contribute in every way for the promotion and development of Taekwondo in Cyprus and that the two forthcoming events will be held in success for both the island and taekwondo. Congatulations to the local organizing committee for its work - they will have CSO always on their side for whatever they need."

The World Taekwondo Europe Junior Championships 2017 and the 1st World Taekwondo Europe Beach Championships are sponsored by OPAP Cyprus, Cyprus Sport Organization (CSO), Cyprus Organization of Tourism (KOT), DAEDO INTERNATIONAL, Thermosolar LTD and the Municipality of Larnaka.

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Published: 10 August 2017

With a scope of the forthcoming World Taekwondo Europe Junior Championships 2017 that will be held in Cyprus this November, on Thursday 10 August, the WTE President Sakis Pragalos had a meeting with the local organizing committee in order to talk through and examine all aspects towards a fine organization.

The President of the Cyprus Taekwondo Federation Phivos Christou, along with Vice-President Angelos Sarpetas, Secretary-General George Korelis and the State Officer Dimitris Araouzos - all members of the OC - met with Mr. Pragalos and extensively dicussed the organizational features of the event, the recently introduced brand new image of World Taekwondo Europe and its optimal communication, along with all its operational procedures.

One more subject that was put on table was the status of the inaugural European World Taekwondo Beach Championships, as Cyprus is the current bidder for taking up the organization of the unique event.

As a the new season of taekwondo championships in on the doorstep, World Taekwondo Federation credits highly the current assembly, since despite the events scheduled to be held on the island, it has also set the way for a series of educational seminars for taekwondo coaches in the future, collaborating with the Cyprus Sport Organization (CSO), always with the active contribution the the Cyprus Taekwondo Federation.

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Published: 08 August 2017

On Tuesday 8 August, the World Taekwondo Europe President Sakis Pragalos welcomed the Serbian Taekwondo Assiciation delegation at the headquarters of WTE in Athens, Greece. The President of the Serbian Taekwondo Association Dejan Burčul and Vice-President Siniša Jancić, along with the Serbian National Team Coach Dragan Jovic, during the few hours meeting with Mr. Sakis Pragalos, expressed their support and interest concerning the Taekwondo sport and events.
Introducing their proposal for Belgrade being the host city for the 23rd World Taekwondo Europe Senior Championships in 2020, the Serbian Taekwondo delegation elaborated and confirmed that the sport of Taekwondo has gained a lot of popularity the late years, not only through the successes of Milica Mandic and Tijana Bogdanovic – the national taekwondo medalists, but also because there are specific initiatives and activities being carried out, having as main goal the development of the sport.
WTE President Sakis Pragalos stated: “The Serbian Taekwondo Association has made an extraordinary development during the recent years. Belgrade has a strong experience in hosting major sport events and I believe that it is the ideal time to combine Taekwondo’s popularity in Serbia with the sport facilities of Belgrade and organize an event of European scale.”

The city of Belgrade beyond its famous history in architecture with many theatres, museums, monuments and opera houses, als

o has approximately one-thousand sporting facilities, which many of them can serve sport events of all levels.
Belgrade’s background regarding hosting major sporting events includes EuroBasket 2005, the 2005 European Volleyball Championship, the 2006 European Water Polo Championship, the European Youth Olympic Festival 2007 and the 2009 Summer Universiade. Finally, Euroleague Basketball recently announced that Belgrade will host the 2018 Final Four, validating for one more time its sport event organizing supremacy.

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Published: 21 July 2017

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Published: 07 July 2017

By highlighting some of the most meaningful and inspiring initiatives that took place in 2017, Peace & Sport features on the cover of its annual report, the biggest White Card campaign ever organized up to now. The stunning result was an initiative of the World Taekwondo and the World Taekwondo Europe who organized this major #WhiteCard activation at the inaugural World Taekwondo Beach Championships Opening Ceremony.

The 400m2 white cotton sheet used for the needs of the result, also involved the cooperation of all athletes, national teams, coaches, taekwondo fans and all attendees of the ceremony who were present on 5-6 May 2017 at the Bastion of Grand Master’s Palace in Rhodes Island in Greece; a historical and cultural site representing the crossroad between Eastern and Western culture, also recognized as World Heritage Monument by UNESCO.

The white cotton sheet that was used for the picture is on its way to be cut into 80 bed sheets and be delivered to a Refugee Camp in Greece.

Appreciating all of Peace & Sport initiatives, we aspire on greater actions, many more contributors and of course the active support of Taekwondo!

You can see the annual report and its references here: http://www.peace-sport.org/news/april6-report-is-now-released/

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Published: 05 July 2017

Coaches that already hold an ETU Coach License and their cards are expiring on 31/12/2017, should follow the electronic renewal procedure available on ETU website.

The fees for renewing your coach card for one (1) year until 31/12/2018 are as below:
 

70€ up to 31/07/2017
 

100€ up to 30/08/2017
 

120€ up to 30/09/2017.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RENEWING STEPS

Use the follwing link to register:

https://www.taekwondoetu.org/events/etu-calendar/coaches-seminar-by-etu/1-renewal-of-expiring-coach-license-card

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Published: 03 July 2017

The 23^rd World Taekwondo Championships were successfully completed on June 30, 2017 and were the most extraordinary edition with largest participation in Taekwondo history.    

European Taekwondo Union representatives achieved to prevail for one more time during a global event. More specific, in the medal overall standings, the first five (5) places have been taken by four (4) European countries and out of sixteen (16) gold medals in total, the eight (8) were collected by European practitioners.

After seven-days of high-level Taekwondo action, the host nation Korea climbed on the first place of the overall medal standings, followed by Turkey in the second place, Serbia on the third and Russia and GBR on the fourth and fifth place respectively.

Turkish representatives Nur Tatar and Agris Zeliha World Champions in 67kg and -53kg categories one-to-one attained the two gold medals for their country. The silver medal for Turkey was gained by Ilgun Hatice Kubra in 57kg category.

Nur Tatar, silver Olympic medallist and the four-time European Champion managed to win her first World title in Muju 2017 and after her victory, she stated:  “I could not believe it, and I still can’t believe it, this is my fifth time at the World Championships. Finally, I got it”.

The female representatives of Serbia lead their country to the third place of the overall ranking since Mandic Milica and Stankovic Vanja left Muju holding the World Champion titles in their categories (-73kg and -49kg).  The Olympic Champion London 2012 won her first World gold medal during the Championships 2017and mentioned: “I still cannot believe what we've done. I am thrilled that i climbed to the top of the world. I had difficult task ahead, this was the most difficult year so far with two injuries in a row ".Well along, she thanked her coach Dragan Jovic, who was also named one of the two Best Coaches of the event, and received congratulations messages from the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic and from the Minister of Youth and Sports Vanja Udivicic !! 

 Stankovic Vanja, the 19 years old athlete, was a great surprise of the -49kg category. As she commented after her victory: “I did not expect to get to finals I just wanted to show my best and believe in myself and see what will happen”.

Russian Taekwondo representatives collected 7 medals in total with the gold one of the Khramtcov Maksim in 74kg category to be distinguishing. As the 19-years-old World Champion mentioned, the final fight of the Championships was the most difficult one since it was a big responsibility and continuing he added: “ I knew it was a historic moment for Russia – could be the first gold”.

The Russian medals are listed by the following athletes: Silver World medallists were Artamonov Mikhail in 58kg, Kotkov Anton in -80kg, Larin Vladislav in -87kg and Kudashova Tatiana in -53kg. The third place on the podium was reached by Kuznetsov Roman in +87kg And Kuzmina Tatiana in -62kg category.

Furthermore, Bianca Walkden has become the first athlete of GBR to successfully defend a World Taekwondo Championships title. The heavyweight beat Jackie Galloway of USA with a score 14-4 in the +73kg category final and celebrated her gold victory in the event. "To be honest it hasn't sunk in, I'm just so happy," she stated at BBC Sport following her second World title and continuing she added, "I played it down more than I thought I would and came out into the final and was thinking 'this is just the gym, I'll just try and kick everyone' like I do in practice”.

Cho Mohama secured the only silver medal for GBR in the World Championships, fighting in the +87kg category and double Olympic medallist Jade Jones (-57kg), Sinden Bradly (-63kg) and Sansum Damon (-80kg) achieved bronze medals and as a results GBR with five (5) medals in total took the fifth place on the overall standings.

Moreover, in the female division Korea came first, followed by Turkey, Serbia, USA and Great Britain. Regarding male division, Korea was first again, followed by Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan and Great Britain.

Azerbaijani representative Beigi Harchegani Milad after winning the gold of the European Games Baku 2016, the gold in the European Championships Montreux 2016 and bronze Olympic medal in Rio 2016, added in his remarkable collection the title of the World Champion afterwards his participation in the South Korean city of Muju. Azerbaijan’s second World medal was achieved by Mammadov Mahammad who won the bronze one in the -63kg category. 

Bachmann Alexander of Germany won the gold medal in -87kg category and was the only medallist for his country in Muju 2017. Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Republic of Moldova, Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden were the countries that managed to win one bronze medal respectively.

World Taekwondo Championships Awards:

Female MVP & Male MVP Award: Ah-reum Lee (KOR) and Abdoul Issoufou (NIG).

Best Coaches: Mun-hee Cheon (KOR) and Dragan Jovic (SRB).

Best Referees: Tarik Benrodi of Morocco, Andrey Khegay of Russia, Song-chol Kim of Canada, Neydis Tavarez of Puerto Rico and Julie Dib of Lebanon.

Greece was awarded by the “Active Participation” trophy and the “Good Fighting Spirit” award was given to Djibouti.

Final Results Here 

Source: World Taekwondo 

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Published: 27 June 2017

The European Taekwondo Union (ETU) elections were successfully held at the ETU General Assembly 2017 that was realized in at the Concerto Hall, Carnival Culture Palace B1,Muju, South Korea, on Friday 23 June 2017. During the same day all the continental Taekwondo Unions and the World Taekwondo realized their elections, scheduled every 4-year period.

Mr Pragalos Sakis has been re-elected President of the European Taekwondo Union and Mr Fysentzidis Michail is the ETU Secretary-General.  Mr Pragalos has been serving European Taekwondo at the head position since 1999, while the last ETU elections took place in Bucharest during the ETU General Assembly on August 20, 2013. Mr Fysentzidis entered the ETU structure in 2011 as Vice-President, and from 2013 until 2021 he holds the ETU Secretary-General position.

Also, the elected Vice-Presidents of ETU are the following: Mr Binev Slavi, Mr Castellanos Pueblas Jesus, Mr Cito Angelo and Mr Yuzefovich Igor. At the position of the Treasurer is Mr Welu Norbert.

Overall, the new ETU Council is consisted by: Mr Apostol Constantin, Mr Chmielarz Artur, Dr Duymaz Oktay, Mr Fleming Martin, Mr. Fysentzidis Michail, Mr Georgiev Andrei, Mr Kluychnikov Evgeny, Mr Patakfalvy Miklos, Mr Prot Franjo, Mr Safarov Naghi, Mr Samadzhiya Lesik, Mr Shlychkov Aleksandr, Mr Sousa Jose Luis, and Dr Zadehmohammad Reza. Concluding, Mr Padros Juanjo and Mr Marton Zsolt Krisztian were elected as ETU Auditors.

Shortly after the announcement of the results of the presidential election, the ETU Council embraced Mr Sakis Pragalos showing their unity and harmony. In his acceptance speech, ETU President noted: ‘I appreciate the trust that I have been shown all these years. We are a family that shares the same vision and aspirations for the progress of the sport and I am honored to continue serving Taekwondo. In a spirit of unity, together with all MNA’s and the new ETU Council, I am ambitious that the years to come will be determinant for Taekwondo.’

ETU Secratary-GeneraI Michail Fysentzidis commented: ‘Ιlook forward to collaborating with the new ETU Council and of course continue our joint efforts with President Sakis Pragalos, remaining aligned in a course to a better future for Taekwondo.’

At the Head of the World Taekwondo Federation Dr. Chung-won Choue has been also re-elected to serve for one more term as World Taekwondo President, while the four additional continental Taekwondo Presidencies are comprised by:

African Taekwondo Union (AFTU) – Gen Ahmed Mohamed Fouly

Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU)– Kyu Seok Lee

Panamerican Taekwondo Union (PATU)– Master Ji Ho Choi

Oceania Taekwondo Union (OTU)– John Kotsifas

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Published: 23 June 2017

Friday, 23 June 2017

The ETU General Assembly 2017 took place today in Muju, Korea at the Concerto Hall, Carnival Culture Palace B1, where the ETU Elections were also successfully held.The European Taekwondo Council re-elected Mr. Sakis Pragalos as its President for one more term of four (4) years, until 2021.Mr. Sakis Pragalos serves as ETU President since 1999.

The last ETU elections took place in Bucharest during the ETU General Assembly on August 20, 2013.

In the overall election procedure also included the ETU Vice-Presidents, ETU Council Members and the Cash Auditors election.

Shortly after the announcement of the results of the presidential election, the ETU Council embraced Mr. Sakis Pragalos showing their unity and harmony.

In his acceptance speech, ETU President noted: ‘I appreciate the trust that I have been shown all these years. We are afamily that shares the same vision and aspirationsfor the progress of the sport and I am honored to continue serving Taekwondo.’ He continued,stating: ‘In a spirit of unity, together with all MNA’s and the new ETU Council,I am ambitious for the years to come, that will be determinant for the development of Taekwondo.’