ITF World Champs New Zealand

Discussion in 'Tae Kwon Do' started by TheMadhoose, Mar 9, 2011.

  1. TheMadhoose

    TheMadhoose Carpe Jugulum

  2. Mandras

    Mandras Eats Ninjas For Breakfast

    Looked like a fantastic job was done by New Zealand, and it was great to be able to watch it live. Stephen Ryan doing so well in fourth to sixth degree patterns kept me up till the early hours. Here's the final, where he lost out to Suska.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKsor4NgN98"]YouTube - ITF Taekwon-Do Final 4/6 Dan World Championships 2011 Wellington[/ame]
     
  3. Elpatzer

    Elpatzer Valued Member

  4. lord-humungous

    lord-humungous Valued Member

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    Last edited: Mar 14, 2011
  5. TheMadhoose

    TheMadhoose Carpe Jugulum

    Party politics is basically to blame the NK & SK versions of the ITF dont recognise the ITF that hosted the competition.
     
  6. TKDstudent

    TKDstudent Valued Member

    The ITF was formed in Seoul south Korea on March 22, 1966. In 1972 when Gen Choi, taekwon-Do's principle founder exiled himself to Canada to escape political persecution under the then brutal military dictatorial regime in south Korea, the ITF membership board/congress voted to approve the move of the ITF headquarters to Toronto Canada. This was in the middle geographically between Asia & Europe, facilitating the spread of Taekwon-Do to both the Americas & Europe.
    In 1985 the ITF headquarters was agin relocated to Vienna Austria, which was between eastern & western Europe, with shared borders with both the capatilist & communist countries of Europe. Austria proclaimed neutrality also allowed access to the recent members of the ITF from north Korea.
    The ITF headquarters continued to be held there until 2002, when Gen. Choi's son broke away from the ITF, setting up headquarters in Ontario Canada where he lived.
    When Gen. Choi passed away a couple of months later, the ITF split again, with the Prof. Chang Ung group staying in the ITF headqurters building. The ITF under GM Tran, kept an address in Vienna, until its then Secty Genl retired & moved back to his motherland in Scotland. That ITF(V) also had an office in Quebec City Canada, home of their president GM Tran. Since his passing, his ITF now operates out of Italy, home of its Secty Genl.

    All 3 ITFs claim a presence in south Korea. Gen. Choi's son, GM Choi Jung Hwa has held its WCs in SK in 2004 & 2009. It is rumored that he is eventually moving his headquarters there. It was in Canada, till some court decisions on the local & federal level prompted most of its operations to move to the UK, home of its Secty Genl.

    The NKs belong to the Prof Chang Ung group. Since their govt is the way it is, there really is no option for NKs to participate in another ITF, hence they were not in New Zealand. SKs have traveled & participated in WCs held by the other 2 ITFs, but I don't think any from SK have compteted in the Tran ITF group, now headed by President GM Tratenberg of Argentina.

    The SK govt has held officials talks with NK about TKD. They had the WTF & the ITF under Prof Chang Ung hold official merger meetings, with no results. The present national adminstration has taken a hard line on NK & as a result, TKD talks have broken down. Look for them to resume, when the govt changes & when TKD presents it case to the IOC for continued Olympic official sport status beyond 2016 Brazil.

    Frankly SK has no need & probably little desire to hold talks with the ITF-V (Tran), as it serves them little purpose, especially in light of the recent Austrian court decision giving the Chang Ung group the latest appeal victory. It would of course weaken the hands of the ITF-Nk a bit, but probably not enough to warrant any serious talks or cooperation. That may change if rumors pan out to be correct that the ITF-V was approved by Sports Accord.

    The ITF-V (Tran) group that recently hosted their WCs in New Zealand have no high ranking Korean masters. I am sure that this may play a part, to some extent back in SK, as Korea is a very homogenous society.
     
  7. Elpatzer

    Elpatzer Valued Member

    Thanks TKDstudent. Back when I first got involved with TKD there were religious wars between ITF and WTF, but I had no idea that there was now internal stuff going on in ITF. I'm a pretty big fan of the different forms of TKD from forms/patterns, traditional self-defense, sparring, all the way to sport and olympic sparring. It saddens me a bit to see that the organizations can't get along.
     

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