The mat will be ready for poomsae players from around the world where they will perform and show off their skills staying away from COVID-19. The poomsae competition of the World Taekwondo Culture Expo, which is a global Taekwondo culture festival would be conducted in online format.

World Taekwondo Culture Expo jointly organized by Jeollabuk-do, Muju County and Taekwondo Promotion Foundation, gets its 14th anniversary this year. Due to the abrupt outbreak of COVID-19, the competition was not held last year. But the KPNP’s online total competition system which is optimized for the no-contact events would be introduced and will be in charge to carry out this year tournament.

Poomsae competition will be held in the online format by using pre-recorded videos and without participation fee imposed. So many players around the globe can show their skills to the whole world.

The registration will be open from Sept. 27 to Oct. 13 at the competition website (www.taekwondoexpo.kr) and then, for two days after the registration, participants will be able to change their video in case they decide this.

The demonstration competition would be exceptionally conducted onsite on Oct. 23 under the strict quarantine guideline. The Expo’s opening ceremony would be held online and then, the demonstration team composed by Korean athletes will perform their skills at Taekwondowon’s T1 gym located in Muju, Korea. The performance will be streamed on YouTube.

Once the registration is completed and videos had been sent, the online competition starts with international referees selected to each court, will score for each performance from Oct. 24 to Oct. 25. The competition will be streamed on November 6 on YouTube.

The online competition is divided into recognized poomsae and continuous kicking.

The recognized poomsae is classified into individual competition, team competition, and pairs. The event will have kids divisions, such as firsts elementary school students, mid-elementary school students, high-elementary school students, middle school students, high school students and adults according to their ages. Participants will also be divided by belt such as, yellow belt, blue belt, red belt and poom-dan.

As for continuous kicking, the players can participate in the individual competition according to their age only like the recognized poomsae, regardless of their belt.

The organizers would present the participation certificate to all participating players, the letter of appreciation to their leaders and awards to all winning players online.

Mr. Lee Byung Ha, president of World Taekwondo Culture Expo encourages the participant saying “People around the world is suffering because of COVID-19. I hope that we all together can overcome this trouble by training Taekwondo and making more efforts to get back to our ordinary daily life.”

Since its foundation in 2007, World Taekwondo Culture Expo has been the place where the Taekwondo players from around the world have participated and where they have experienced the traditional and cultural program of Korea which is the birthplace of Taekwondo. It is expected with the assistance of online system that the event would be the place for a wider global Taekwondo festival which has been suspended due to COVID-19.