Taekwondo: Grand master Ilukhor gives reasons for poomsae seminar

By Ifeanyi Eduzor

Chief instructor at the ongoing national poomsae seminar and kukkiwon Dan test currently going on at the Indoor Sports Hall of National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos Grand Master Pius Ilukhor says that the seminar became necessary in order to prepare instructors for the kukkiwon certification coming up in October this year even as he expressed happiness with the large turnout of participants.

The seminar commenced Wednesday July 27th with Grand Master Ilukhor as the Chief instructor while Korean Grand Master Ki Hong Kim is serving as Chief Examiner.

“This was a program  we started planning last two months. The plan was to prepare taekwondo players and their instructors for October Kukkiwon master certification and I’m sure you know  that for you to be a master or higher master, you have to take a certification. Nigeria is now the only country In Africa that was approved this year. So by October, you’re going to see players From Ghana, Kenya, Niger and all countries of Africa coming here for the certification and Korean instructors coming here on October 12 as well to conduct the exercise. So my role as highest Dan is to prepare them for that because the standasisation is different from what they have and I don’t want them to fail.

” Right now am still doing a lot work like cleaning up their basic fundamentals and today we have about 180 participants from the South. East and North and we are expecting more, so am  impressed about this”,

stated Grand Master Ilukhor who is based in the United States.

On his advice on how to move taekwondo forward in the country and make Nigerian players  attain stardom in sports at the world level, he maintained that his duty is to train instructors and make them  know how to treat and maintain their discipline in the sports so that they can be role models to students and children in the society which to him  is more profitable.

” Taekwondo is a sport and an art. Kukkiwon controls the certification and taekwondo is controlled by World Taekwondo Federation ( WTF) so my job is to train instructors to know how to impact knowledge to their athletes and serve as role model to them which to me is the most important thing”, he concluded.