Egypt will host the sixth Taekwondo Egypt Open G2 from 21-24 February. A total of 314 players will be representing 47 countries: seven from Asia, 21 representing Africa and 18 representing Europe in addition, to the US, while last year's edition attracted only 30 countries. “This shows how the organisation of the event attracted more players to join,” Amr Selim, Egypt taekwondo president, said. “This year's championship has attracted a great number of participants including world champions and athletes,” Selim said. Egypt come in with 29 athletes: 16 men and 13 women. Selim also announced that for the first time the Egypt Open will include a special event for under-14 cadets. Five countries will be in this event. Winners will qualify directly to the World Championships to take place by the end of the year. Selim added that this year's event in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada not only attracted participants but a number of officials and VIPs attending the inauguration. Selim thanked Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi “for his care and great support, giving a helping hand to make the event a real success as he asked for the renovation of the Hurghada indoor halls to be up to the event”. He also thanked Red Sea Governor Ahmed Abdullah for agreeing to host the event. Selim said he decided to change the governorate hosting the event first from Luxor to Alexandria and this year to Hurghada to offer a wide variety of venues for foreigners to get to know touristic cites in Egypt and to accelerate tourism. The Egypt Open started in 2014 and was originally named the Luxor International Championship. Ahmed Al-Foli, vice president of World Taekwondo and head of the African Taekwondo Federation, helped put the championship on the world taekwondo calendar as a G2 competition. The 2015 edition, also in Luxor, had a record number of participants -- 401 athletes representing 48 countries. Luxor also played host to the 2016 edition, after which came Alexandria in 2018. The event will be broadcast live on the ONTV sports channel.
