Para-taekwondo team for African Championship

A team of Para-Taekwondo athletes will on Monday depart Ghana for the second African Para-Taekwondo Open Championships to be held in Rwanda.The competition, which is slated for April 1 and 2, in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, would bring together phyically challenged people specifically those with amputated arms who would compete against opponents from other participating countries.

The team is led by the Chairman of the GTF Para-Taekwondo Committee, Lawrence Osei-Boateng and it include the coach, Adom Mensah Latse and two male athletes Stephen  Kwasi Sansah and Azumah Salah Mohammed from the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions respectively. The other  female athlete, Kubura Awudu, is from the Greater Accra Region.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ghana Taekwondo Federation (GTF), Adnan Lamptey, who briefed the Daily Graphic, said the participation of the members of the Ghana National Para-Taekwondo in the Rwanda Championship is part of efforts by the federation to prepare and develop para-taekwondo athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

“We cannot let the opportunity which is an assistance from the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) go waste for the third time in a row”.

This the third time the world taekwondo body is paying for tickets and accommodation for us to be in such a competition. Now it is left with the GTF to pay for the food,  per diem,  and other items for the athletes,” he disclosed and said the GTF managed to secure four out of five tickets from the WTF  but was vigorously seeking for  sponsorship for the fifth ticket, per diem allowances, as well as a national outfit for the team.

In the year 2014, para- taekwondo athlete, Sharon Akwei won Ghana’s first world  medal (bronze) in taekwondo in Russia.