THF Asia to Sponsor Choi Young Seok Cup Taekwondo Championship

By Seok-Jae Kang,
Asia Journalists Association Vice President  

BANGKOK: THF (Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation) Asia will sponsor the annual Choi Young Seok Cup international taekwondo championships which take place in Pattaya, Thailand starting this year.

Kang Dae-geun, president of THF Asia, signed a cooperation agreement to support the taekwondo event in a ceremony at the Taekwondo Association of Thailand on January 17, 2023.

Under the agreement, THF Asia will financially support the 10th NSDF Pattaya Choi Young Seok Cup International Taekwondo Championship 2023 scheduled for February 11-12 at the Eastern National Sports Training Center in Pattaya City. NSDF stands for National Sports Development Fund.

THF Asia will support financially athletes from economically difficult countries in the Asia region to participate in the international taekwondo event, thus helping the Choi Young Seok Cup event establish as a genuine international sporting event.

The upcoming Choi Young Seok Cup event is expected to attract about 2,500 athletes and officials from over 10 countries, including Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, Myanmar, Finland, etc. Korea will dispatch about 70 athletes for the event.

The Choi Young Seok Cup taekwondo event, which dates back to 2013, is known as one of the big three mega sporting events in Thailand. In 2014 the Thai royal family officially recognized the taekwondo event, which has been hosted by Choi Young Seok, who serves as the head team coach of the national taekwondo team of Thailand. Master Choi, born in Korea and later naturalized as a Thai citizen, has helped Thai taekwondo athletes win gold medals at the Olympic Games and World Taekwondo Championships.

“It is my honor to sponsor the Choi Young Seok Cup taekwondo event starting this year. THF Asia also plans to launch the so-called ‘GCS-THF Asia Cup International Taekwondo Championships’ as early as next year, which will help athletes from Asian countries in need of financial support attend the international event and give them hope and dreams through taekwondo,” said THF Asia President Kang.

THF Asia was established in May 2022 with its headquarters in Seoul, whose main purpose is to empower refugees in the Asian region. WT President Chungwon Choue raised first the idea of the establishment of the THF during his speech at the U.N. headquarters on September 21, 2015, the U.N. International Day of Peace. The THF was born in 2016 with its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.