Asian indoor games: Bahrain Taekwondo team eyes glory

Manama : Bahrain’s national Taekwondo team has stepped up their preparations ahead of the Fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, to be held in Ashgabat, in Turkmenistan.

Three athletes will be spearheading Bahrain taekwondo team at the games - Wala’a Al Dossary (under-57kg), Juana Mohammed (under-62kg) and her younger sister Jomana Mohammed (under-73kg).

The trio have been training regularly under their coach Tawfeeq Nuwaiser. Their most recent practice session was witnessed by Bahrain Martial Arts Federation (BMAF) president Ahmed Al Khayyat, Bahrain chef de mission Fawaz Shamsan and Bahrain Olympic Committee projects director, Lounes Madene.

The games take place from September 17 to 27 and hosted at the Ashgabat Olympic Complex in the Turkmenistan capital.

Unique in the Central Asian region, the complex boasts of over 30 structures, which also includes 15 competition venues, an Athletes Village and a Paralympic Rehabilitation Medical Center.

Taekwondo will host two events at Ashgabat 2017, the Kyorugi with seven weight categories for both men and women from September 18–21, and Poomsae, which will include an individual and team event for men and women on 22 September.

There will be 18 medal events with all the action taking place inside the Taekwondo DanceSport Arena.

The men’s section in the Kyorugi competition will feature seven weight categories in total (54kg, -58kg, -63kg, -68k, -74kg, -80kg, and -87kg). In the women’s events, there are categories in -46kg, -49kg, -53kg, -57kg, -62kg, -67kg and -73kg. Kyorugi will use a direct elimination system to produce two finalists. All athletes who lose against either of the finalists will have the opportunity to contest for a bronze medal in the repechage. The competition will include elimination rounds, repechage rounds and finals.

The poomsae championship will see competitions in the men’s Individual under-30 years old, men’s team under-30 years, women’s individual under-30 years and women’s team under-30 years. Poomsae will use a cut off system to determine the athletes that will advance to the finals. 

The top four athletes will be awarded medals with the third and fourth place receiving a bronze medal.