On the Scene: Climax for Taekwondo Election

WTF president Chungwon Choue is seeking another term in office. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)(ATR) A contentious election for the presidency of the World Taekwondo Federation ends Tuesday at the WTF General Assembly in Copenhagen.

Two candidates remain on the ballot for the election: incumbent Chungwon Choue, who has held office for five years and Thai IOC member Nat Indrapana, a vice president of the WTF. Originally, four candidates were running for the post.

With fewer candidates the race has intensified. IOC members who serve on the WTF executive, Australian Phil Coles and Ivan Dibos of Peru are backing Choue. According to media reports, some European IOC members are backing Indrapana.

Allegations of vote buying have been leveled. Athanasios Pragalos, one of the candidates who has dropped out of the race made the charge but the European Taekwondo Federation President never said who was attempting to buy votes. He says he “unconditionally” supports Indrapana, and urges others to do so as well.

Choue tells Around the Rings those allegations are groundless.

“This is just a smear campaign, without evidence,” says Choue.

In recent weeks, anonymous faxes coming from Korea were sent to media outlets containing negative information regarding WTF under Choue’s leadership. There are rumors that ex-IOC member from South Korea Un Yong Kim, Choue’s predecessor at the WTF (and the founder of the federation, too) is behind efforts to unseat Choue.

One IOC member tells Around the Rings that individuals perpetuating these allegations are “destroying” taekwondo.

Choue is telling WTF delegates of his accomplishments in a 72-page book “Taekwondo is My Life”, describing his involvement with the sport. Translated into five languages, the book is available in the lobby of the Copenhagen hotel where the general assembly will be held. It is unclear if the book is a personal publication or a WTF publication.

Around the Rings could not find a copy of the glossy brochure Indrapana produced to promote his candidacy. Nat Indrapana wants the WTF to stay in Korea. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)

Titled “Keep Taekwondo in the Olympic Programme”, Indrapana discusses his plans for the federation as president. The 18-page book comes with his plan translated into English, French, and Spanish. His key campaign plank may have been undermined however by the IOC, which approved taekwondo as one of the 26 core sports at the Copenhagen IOC Session

For his part, Choue says he doesn’t know why the election became so heated.

“I have been working for the development of taekwondo and the WTF for the past four years” he said.

If reelected, Choue said he wants to globalize taekwondo, a sport historically regarded as Korean.

Choue opened a liaison office in Lausanne to help with international relations, marketing, and public relations. Additionally he is opening regional training centers throughout the world to help train athletes, coaches, and referees.

Indrapana says in his brochure that his top priority is to keep taekwondo in the Olympics. He wants to keep the WTF headquarters in Korea “forever”. “It is a Korean art and sport” he wrote. Additionally, he wants to increase funding to many WTF initiatives.

Examples include increasing the marketing budget from $1.5 million to $3 million, increasing funding to continental organizations to $100,000 annually, up from $15,000, and increasing referees per diem at competitions by 50% to $150. He notes the difficulty in achieving these goals by mentioning a major corporation cancelled its annual $1 million sponsorship, but offered no plans to recoup the loss.

Also to be decided at the general assembly are the races for vice president. Three of WTF’s six VPs are elected and five candidates are running for those The World Taekwondo Championships begin Wednesday in Copenhagen. (Getty Images)seats.

The meeting is scheduled for the day before the start of WTF’s world championships in Copenhagen.

Taking place at the Ballerup Super Arena just outside of Copenhagen, the championships run from the 14th until the 18th. So far, 4500 tickets to the event have been sold, two thirds of all budgeted tickets.

WTF-Taekwondo.tv will be showing all the matches via the internet.

Written by Ed Hula III.