Taekwondo: Players urged to step up training

The International Taekwondo Federation Uganda president Robert Ojiambo has urged players to train very hard ahead of the 2017 Dublin ITF World Championships despite financial constraints.

Uganda will need sh95m to cater for the 14 players to present the country in the 25th edition of the world championships slated for October 9-16 at Citywest Hotel Conference & Leisure Centre in Dublin, Ireland's capital.

However ITF Uganda has already secured 3 tickets from Sharing Youth Centre Taekwondo Club and 1 from their patron Niklas Enander.

Ojiambo said that despite struggles in raising funds to cater for the player's tickets, accommodation and meals in the championships, players should not lose hope but rather train harder because he is seeing a promising feature.

"We are currently down with about sh95m to cater for the players; we already have four tickets and still need 10 more tickets and money for accommodation and meals. But this should not divert players thoughts but rather train hard because I see something bigger coming," Ojiambo said.

"Prisons Taekwondo Club reacted positively on supporting us, we now wait for them to give us feedback since they pledged to contribute something," Ojiambo added.

Uganda was ranked second after Ethiopia in the ITF rankings after last year's ITF Africa championships that were held in Ethiopia where Uganda emerged second.

The championships in Dublin will entertain over 1000 participants and will be Uganda's first appearance in the ITF world event which will at the same time determine Uganda's international ranking.