It's a sport that gets little attention compared with other sports such as soccer, even though Egyptians excel at it. Although it originated in South Korea, Egypt has gained an international reputation in this sport. Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. It is the world's most popular martial art in terms of the number of participants. The Egyptian national team have finished their preparations for the Third Arab Taewondo Championship, which is due to start Tuesday and runs till next Monday in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. “We are ready for the championship,” Hossam Morsi, the President of the Egyptian Taekwondo Federation (ETF), told the Egyptian Gazette in an interview. “I have every confidence in our athletes, as they have recently been very successful,” he added. The Egyptian team started preparing for this tourney after participating in the Jordan International Championship, in which they grabbed three gold medals and two bronzes. According to the official, the competition among the six nations participating in Jordan ��" Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Uzbekistan ��" was fierce. The Egyptian team have spent the past week putting the finishing touches to their preparations at a camp in the Olympic Centre in Maadi. Taekwondo is ‘the way of the foot and fist' or ‘the way of kicking and punching'. Tae means ‘to strike or break with the foot'; kwon means ‘to strike or break with the fist'; and do means ‘way' or ‘method'. According to Morsi, around 14 countries will be competing in Sharm el-Sheikh, including Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Bahrain, Tunisia, the UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco and Sudan, besides Egypt, the hosts. “Participating in big international events benefits the national teams. The world championship held in Turkey in 2008 was the fiercest tourney we've ever competed in. “Taekwondo as a martial art is popular with people of both genders and of many ages," stressed Morsi, who was formerly the Secretary-General of the ETF and is now its President. According to him, this sport develops strength, speed, balance, flexibility and determination. Morsi said that the ETF could build on this popularity of the game among both genders to expand it locally. “There are 60,000 players registered in the ETF but only around 20,000 of them take it seriously,” he explained, adding that around 80,000 Egyptians practised this self-defence sport.
