HISTORIC!
PATU Press – World Taekwondo, the governing body of Olympic taekwondo, has made official in its 2023 calendar that the Team Kyorugui tournament corresponding to the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 will score in the WT ranking as G-4, which translates into a significant increase in points for the athletes of the continent on their way to Olympic qualification to Paris 2024.
After the efforts made by the current PATU administration, led by its president, LAE. Juan Manuel López Delgado, Team Kyorugui has taken firm steps in its foundation in the continent that place America as a model to follow among the Continental Taekwondo Unions, since, together with the support of PanamSports, the first incursion of this modality by teams in Multisport Games around the world was achieved, with the incentive of being a competition that will have G-4 ranking.
“Today is a historic day for PATU: we can say that the work has paid off and it is now official that Team Kyorugui in its first edition in Pan American Games will have G-4 ranking. This means that athletes from the region will have the possibility of scoring points in individual Kyorugui and also in team Kyorugui, which will be a great boost on the road to Olympic qualification for Paris 2024,” explains Lopez Delgado.
After the continental qualifying tournament held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and considering the number of quotas corresponding to the winning countries in the Junior Pan American Games Cali 2021, a total of 13 female and 12 male teams have already qualified for the Pan American Games Santiago 2023, a competition that will take place on the last day of the taekwondo tournament of the great multisport event of the continent: October 24.
“This announcement opens a new panorama of Olympic qualification for the continent,” reiterated Lopez Delgado, who urged the MNA’s to “work, study and focus on developing Team Kyorugui.”
“We will also have Team Kyorugui in the Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador 2023 and besides that, we have already established a circuit of PATU events where there will be Team Kyorugui with the intention of defining the heads of series of Santiago 2023, among which highlights the first Pan American Championship of this modality that will be in the framework of the continental events in the Dominican Republic, on April 28,” said Lopez Delgado.
The tenth taekwondo competition in the history of the Pan American Games will be held at the new Combat Sports Pavilion in Santiago de Chile, from October 21 to 24, 2023. The sport made its debut at the 1987 Indianapolis Games and has been a permanent fixture on the official program ever since.
