Queretaro, Mexico Ready for 2014 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final & 2014 World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships

The Mexican city of Queretaro is eager for the kick-off of the 2014 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final and the 2014 WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships.

The Queretaro Grand Prix final will be held at the Queretaro Convention Center on Dec. 3-4, drawing a total of 64 top athletes from 27 countries. A total of 30 international referees will officiate at the Grand Prix final.

By country, host Mexico fields the largest nine athletes, including three female athletes, followed by Korea with four male and three female players. France sends one male and five female athletes, while Russia sends two male and two female athletes, and Iran fields four male players. Germany, Spain, Great Britain and Egypt sends three athletes each.

Among the participating athletes are five male gold medalists and three female Olympic gold medal winners.

The five male gold medal winners are Turkey’s Servet Tazegul, the gold medalist in the -68kg division at the 2012 London Olympic Games; Spain’s Joel Golzalez Bonilla, the gold medalist in the -58kg class at the 2012 London Olympics; Argentina’s Sebastian Eduardo Crismanich, the gold medalist in the -80kg category at the 2012 London Olympics; Italy’s Carlo Molfetta, the gold medalist in the +80kg division of the 2012 London Olympic Games; and Korea’s Dong-min Cha, the gold medalist in the +80kg division at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The three female gold medalists are China’s Wu Jingyu, the gold medal winner in the -49kg class at the 2012 London Olympic Games; Great Britain’s Jade Jones, the gold medalist in the -57kg division at the 2012 London Olympics; and Serbia’s Milica Mandic, the gold medalist in the +67kg category at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The Grade-8 Queretaro Grand Prix final features four male and four female Olympic weight categories; the -49kg, -57kg, -67kg and +67kg in the female division; the -58kg, -68kg, -80kg and +80kg in the male class.

The two-day Grand Prix final will use protector and scoring system (PSS) head gears, or e-head gears.

A bronze medal contest will be held in a single elimination format. The gold medal winner in each category will receive a prize money of 6,000 U.S. dollars, while the silver medalist will earn $3,000 dollars and the bronze medal winner $1,000.

At the same venue, the 2014 WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships will be held on Dec. 6-7, attracting eight male and eight female teams.

The participating teams are host Mexico, Korea, Russia, Iran, Germany, France, Cote d’Ivoire and the United States in the men’s division, while host Mexico, Korea, Russia, China, Colombia, France, Cote d’Ivoire and the United States participate in the female category.

A mixture of traditional team match and tag-team match formats will be used at the two-day World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships.

For the competition, each team should enter a minimum five athletes and a maximum seven athletes, including two substitutes. A team may include a maximum two athletes from other member national associations, which are not participating in the Queretaro World Cup.

Each team can designate five first team athletes and one substitute athlete per contest. The athletes will be numbered from 1 (lightest) to 5 (heaviest).

The preliminary and quarterfinal matches will be conducted for 3 rounds (5 minutes of the first round and 3 minutes of the second and third round each) with a 1-minute break between rounds. Semifinal and final matches will be carried out 3 rounds of 5 minutes with a 1-minute break between rounds.

The first round will be conducted in a traditional team match format for 1 minute per competition, meaning that the athletes shall compete against his/her counterparts of the opposing team in the order from lighter to heavier. Final score of each team will be an accumulated points scored by all athletes.

The second and third round will be conducted in a tag-team match format for 3 or 5 minutes. The number of replacement will be allowed a maximum of 8 times per round of 3 minutes, and 12 times per round of 5 minutes regardless of order, but each athlete should attack a minimum 3 times for replacement.

The team that scores more points in accumulation of the first, second and third round will be declared as the winner. In case of a tie at the preliminary group stage, the final result shall be recorded as draw, but from quarterfinals, the golden-point round will be carried out in a tag-team format. The team that scores the first point will be declared as the winning team.

The team that first reaches 50 points in total shall be declared as the winner at any time during the competition. The team that reaches 10 gam-jeom in total shall be declared as the loser at any time during the competition. When there is a score gap of 30 points, the match shall be automatically concluded.

The Grade-2 World Cup Team Championships will feature a round-robin system in the preliminary group stage and a single elimination system in quarterfinals through finals.

The first-placed team will earn its athletes 20 points, while the second-placed squad will get 12 points. The third-placed team will earn 7.20 points, compared with 4.32 points for the fifth-placed teams. The ranking points will be awarded to the athletes’ regular weight division.

The two-day Grand Prix final will also use protector and scoring system (PSS) head gears, or e-head gears.

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