Referee Screening for Olympics Has Begun
By WTF
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
WTF has started the screening process for the referees who shall be officiating at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. From July 29th until August 4th there will be a week long training camp at Woosuk University in Jeonju, North Jeolla province of Korea. 187 International referees from 57 countries will take part in this training camp, according to WTF.
During the practice, referees will be ranked and WTF will select those with a high ranking for the upcoming qualification tournaments for the Olympic Games - this will be the second stage of the screening process.
Qualification Tournaments will be staged at the following time and location:
- Sept. 28th - 30th 2007: World Qualification Tournament in Manchester, GB
- Nov. 1st - 3rd 2007: African Taekwondo Qualification Tournament in Tripoli, Libya
- Nov. 29th - Dec. 3rd 2007: Asian Qualification Tournament in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Dec. 7th - 9th 2007: Pan-American Qualification Tournament in Cali, Colombia
- Jan. 26th - 27th 2008: Oceania Qualification Tournament in New Caledonia
- Jan. 26th - 27th 2008: European Qualification Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey
There will be basic medical checkups at the referee training camp, such as visual acuity, colorblindness, blood pressure and hearing, and fitness tests, like 1,200-meter run, 50-meter sprint and standing long jump. For the evaluation of practical tests, the WTF set up an eight-member ad-hoc evaluation committee.
By early February next year, the WTF is to announce the final 29 international referees, who will officiate at the taekwondo competition of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
