Benidorm brings together nearly 800 athletes this Saturday at the Spanish Taekwondo Championship

This Saturday, May 25, Benidorm will host a sporting event that will bring together nearly 800 top-level national athletes in the city. In this case, to compete in the Spanish Junior WT Championship and the Spanish Senior and Junior Taekwon-Do ITF Championship. The competition will take place at the Palau d'Esports L'Illa in Benidorm and will also host the first edition of the ITF Taekwon-Do Spanish Inclusive Championship, in which athletes with different abilities will compete.

The Sports Councilor of the Benidorm City Council, Javier Jordá, presented today all the details of this championship together with the president of the Royal Spanish Taekwondo Federation, Jesús Castellanos, and the president-director of the ITF National Taekwon-Do Commission, Paco Ferrando. 

In the tournament, the Junior WT category will have the participation of 342 athletes, 80 'coaches', and 50 referees. In the junior and senior categories of the ITF Taekwon-Do modality, there will be more than 200 taekwondo players, in addition to referees and other members of the organization and teams, according to the data provided by the representatives of this Federation.

The competition will begin at 9 in the morning and last until approximately 7 in the afternoon. For the tests, 10 competition mats will be set up, six for WT and four for the ITF senior and junior categories, with their respective scoreboards, and an electronic and video replay system. Javier Jordá explained that “the entire competition will be broadcast by streaming”, for which there will also be “online information channels on the main platforms and social networks (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) where fans will be able to follow the competition live. ”.

As regards the Senior and Junior categories of ITF Taekwon-Do, the competition modalities to participate will be Sparring, Forms/Tuls, Team Forms, prepared combat and special jumping techniques.

In the presentation, Jordá explained that Benidorm “will not only once again be the venue for a sporting event of the highest level, but we will also be able to enjoy an Inclusive Spanish Taekwon-Do championship for the first time.” ITF", with which "Benidorm once again becomes a benchmark for inclusion and a destination without barriers and for everyone, both in sport and in the rest of the facets of life."

For his part, Jesús Castellanos explained that this championship will bring together “the best” athletes and that it will be, “without a doubt, of a high level and highly contested, since “the team that will represent Spain in the next Championship will come from here.” of the World”, which this year is celebrated in Korea. Likewise, the president of the Royal Federation has highlighted that, by uniting the two modalities of this sport, "we join forces to be even bigger." 

In this sense, it is worth highlighting that in the afternoon session, the combat finals are scheduled in a unique setting for Taekwondo WT and Taekwon-Do ITF, “showing a message of unity to the world,” the organization has highlighted.

Likewise, Castellanos has stated that this year the competition “will be even more special because we are in an Olympic year” and has recalled that Spanish Taekwondo has managed to “qualify four athletes for Paris for these games, two men and two women, which is the maximum per country, and also two other athletes for the Paralympic Games.”

For his part, Paco Ferrando has thanked “the facilities” for organizing an event of this type in the city and has hoped that “on Saturday we will experience a great Taekwondo party, where the athletes will enjoy and that will also bring together a great number of spectators that fill the pavilion.” 

During the press conference, in addition, the Spanish Taekwondo Federation, the two new mascots, two dragons, one male and one female were presented, which represent the two disciplines of this sport and with which a contest on the social networks of this organization to choose their names.