The meeting was attended by the President of the National Olympic Committee Kiumars Hashemi, the President of the WTF Chungwon Choue, the Secretary General of the World Federation Payman Rafati as well as the Iranian Taekwondo Federation President Seyed Mohammad Pouladgar.
Hashemi referred to Iran’s position in the world championship adding “Iran possesses one of the world’s most successful federations so that Mr. Pouladgar managed to enter the executive committee of the National Olympic Committee in the first round by receiving the majority of votes.”
“Currently, Iran’s taekwondo holds world titles in all age groups which is rooted in the millions of dollars investment in the sport on the part of the government; however, we believe WTF is not offering necessary attention to all the achievements,” he added.
Hashemi went on to state that “development of taekwondo in Iran has benefited the region as well with many countries participating in Iranian training courses while WTF does not seem to be lenient with Iran’s taekwondo and hereby we make some legitimate requests.”
The head of Iran's National Olympic Committee noted “first, we seek to become a member of WTF’s Executive Council and more importantly we expect WTF to consult Iran as a world power in making its most important decisions.”
“Second, the purpose of launching Iran’s International Center has been hosting a variety of regional and global events while the world federation has paid little attention to the issue; therefore, Iran seeks to become the regional center for various competitions,” underlined the official.
“The third issue pertains to the arbitration board and WTF has never paid due attention to Iran’s protests in the regard; for instance, we wrote a protest against the judgment in the Asian Championship in Uzbekistan while WTF has not offered a proper response,” reminded Hashemi calling for recruitment of more Iranian judges in world events considering Iran’s taekwondo positions in the world.
The official continued his remarks underlining “our fourth demand is to host 2016 World Championship knowing that WTF is planning to hold the event in two separate halls for men and women athletes.”
Doctor Chu, the President of the World Taekwondo Federation, said for his part, “I respect Mr. Pouladgar and Iran’s taekwondo and even Korea is wondering about Iran’s progress in the sport.”
“Elections decide on the membership of the Executive Council of the world Federation but being the president of the federation, I have some rights in making new appointments and I promise to take care of it in less than two years,” Added Chue noting “our intention to hold World Championship in two separate halls but in one country is not to spread gender discrimination, rather we aim the growth of women in taekwondo; Iran needs to make a written request to WTF and we would be happy to have Iranians as the host.”
He further noted that Iran’s position in the men’s taekwondo is very high and powerful and in the women’s section, the growth has been satisfactory in the recent years; “I will do my best to be of help with regard to your requests,” noted Chu praising Iran for being supportive of taekwondo.
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