Moorosi Tsiane
Lesotho Taekwondo Association (LTA) Public Relations Officer, Likhama Leuta, says the country’s dominance in last weekend’s Korean Ambassador Championship augured well for the sport.
Lesotho beat Botswana and Swaziland in the tournament held on 29 November at Lesotho High School, winning three bronze, three silver and nine gold medals in the annual tournament held in honour of the Korean ambassador.
Taekwondo was once a dominant sport in Lesotho in the 1990s due to the support of the Republic of Koreans, whose coaches would train locals through partnership with the Lesotho Defence Force. The LTA has since revived the partnership with the South Koreans, hence the name of last weekend’s tournament.
According to Leuta, the tournament was not only a success but also showed Lesotho had made tremendous strides in the sport.
“We had a very good tournament and it was really a success compared to last year. Our team did very well this year and that shows that we are at least going somewhere with our development.
“I was really happy with our performance especially since we had a new team in the tournament.
“We are trying to build a team that will represent the country in the All-Africa Games next year and the Olympics in 2016, so winning these many medals gives us hope that we are on the right track. This really shows that we are moving forward as far as taekwondo is concerned. South Africa almost won everything last year and even they had been here this time, I doTaekwondo ‘on the rise’ shadow of its former self.
However, according to Leuta, there are strong indications that those glory days are back, particularly following last weekend’s performance.
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