The Malta Taekwondo Federation have successfully organised their 1st Malta Taekwondo Spirit International Open at St Martins College Gym with the foreign participation of athletes from Greece, Cyprus, Luxemburg and Malta.

This event was organised over a three-day period consisted of a referees’ seminar conducted by International Taekwondo Referee and Director Panikos Lusoiu and supported by the European Taekwondo Union, namely, Phivos Christou.

In this seminar the MTF national referees and judges had the opportunity to review the latest WTF regulations in the sparring Olympic aspect of the sport.

At the end of the seminar all officials were presented with an ETU/MTF certificate and MTF President Joseph Azzopardi presented a momento to Panikos, thanking him for his support to the federation and that the MTF will now have five officially certified national Kyorugi referees.

The main event of the Open competition was organised with the participation of athletes from all four nations and in all weight categories and levels.

MTF officials, with the technical supervision of Panikos, administered the bouts, refereeing and judging and all athletes and spectators alike had a field day of experiencing first hand high level of spectacular Taekwondo sparring bouts.

At the end of the competition the MTF President Joseph Azzopardi, together with Mr Lozoiu, the committee and technical board, presented the trophies and participation certificates to all athletes thanking everyone for their support to make this event a success and by placing Malta on the World Taekwondo map showing that it is capable to organise such a high level international annual events.

On the last day of the event, Master Chris Vella and national coach Brian Saliba conducted technical training seminars for MTF and for foreign athletes that participated in the Open.

For more information about the Malta Taekwondo Federation one may visit : www.mtf.org.mt