Afghan taekwondo athletes miss Olympic Games in Jordan

KABUL (Pajhwok): Four Afghan taekwondo athletes have missed the Olympic Qualification Tournament 2021 games due to their infection with coronavirus.

Nisar Ahmad Bahavi, a taekwondo athlete and a former member of the National Taekwondo Team, in a press conference today in Kabul said that four athletes, FarzadMansoori, MohsinRezayee, SumiaGhulami and Zahra Merzayee were expected to travel to Jordan to participate in 2021 Asian Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament.

However, he said that the mentioned athletes were tested positive for coronavirus and that was the reason they were removed from the list of qualifying taekwondo athletes by the World Taekwondo Federation.

“We as a family of taekwondo and medalists on the Asia, world and regional levels gathered in order to take responsibility for a game that is losing ground,” he said.

He criticized the taekwondo federation and said, “Athletes who exercised for last four years without having any resources to find their way to Olympic games are deprived of these games due to bad management of the taekwondo federation.”

Bahavi said that taekwondo athletes should have gathered from the capital and provinces of the country a month before and so they would get prepared for the games even if their test was positive.

He asked for reforms in the taekwondo federation and said that there should be an immediate election for the leadership of the federation.

However, NajibullahSekandar, head of the National Taekwondo Federation told Pajhwok Afghan News that there was no any problem in the area and today’s conference was held by ‘some opportunists’.

mds/ma