by Despite opening 30 minutes behind schedule, the 1st National Taekwondo Championships was a success. Fans and supporters lined the doors of the Sir John Guise as early as 8 am to watch the trials which was supposed to start at 10am.
The championships saw fighters from clubs and styles all around the country compete with team Bougainville amassing a large support from the audience. There were also teams from East New Britain (ENB) and Central.
The final fight between Reina Peni from ENB and Anton Aitsi from the Kassman Taekwondo in Port Moresby saw these two international reps fight it out for top spot. Due to time limitations, the match was shortened to 1 minute per round for two rounds. At the end the score line was tied at 8 all and a ‘sudden death’ was added which saw Peni scoring to take out the top spot in the males 63kg division and the coming Papua New Guinea Grassroots Games in Kokopo in November.
Peni and Aitsi were the only two to have scored knockouts in the championships.
According to officials, there will be three teams selected from the trials. The first would be the representative team while the others would be the development team and the junior development team. The fighters had displayed great talent and Taekwondo PNG would focus on developing these talents.
Pictures of the event can be seen on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pngwarrior)
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