The International Wushu Federation (IWUF) general congress was held on Sunday evening in Sultan Hotel in Jakarta where the new members of the Technical Committee were announced with the first-time membership of an Iranian.
Mohammad Reza Pourgholami marks the first Iranian ever appointed as a member of the committee while other members come from China, Britain, Indonesia, Poland, Egypt, the US, Australia, Russia as well as Cyprus.
Pourgholami is one of the most senior members of the Iranian Wushu family with brilliant record in the field having made great efforts to develop the sport in the country and possesses a special position in IWUF.
Madam Liu Beijian also remained as IWUF Secretary General.
Attended by 1000 Wushu practitioners from 82 world countries, the 13th World Wushu Championships is underway in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Being an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts, Wushu was developed in China after 1949, in an effort to standardize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts, although attempts to structure the various decentralized martial arts traditions date back earlier, when the Central Guoshu Institute was established at Nanking in 1928.
In contemporary times, Wushu has become an international sport through the IWUF, which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years; the first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing and won by Yuan Wen Qing.
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