Im Folgenden wollen wir euch den Originaltext eines Statement anlässlich der herrschenden Pandemie von Sakis Pragalos, President von World Taewondo Europe, übermitteln. Der Verband des europäischen Kontinentalverbandes der olympischen Sportart Taekwondo nimmt darin zu der Situation von Turnieren und Qualifikationen im Taekwondo Stellung.
Sakis Pragalos, WTE President:
Dear friends,
I sincerely hope that you and your family are doing well in these difficult times. As you know, Taekwondo Europe has been working to start competitions at European level.
Although I know that the pandemic is still raging throughout Europe, I felt that we – like other sports – should resume our competitions. Due to that decision, many of you have raised valid concerns with regard to safety, equal opportunity and other issues. I certainly do agree that in these times not all athletes will have equal opportunity to participate at our events. Some countries cannot participate and others have strict rules with regard to travelling and returning back to their home countries after competition.
All events that we organize have strict COVID-protocols, based on national legislation of the hosting countries. In addition, we have issued a set of measures focusing on our sport in particular. With these protocols, the involvement of trained medical professionals and the help of the participating teams, the health risks are kept to a minimum. At all times, Taekwondo Europe will follow the instructions of the authorities, also if that means that an event has to be cancelled at the last moment.
I firmly believe that we will overcome this crisis within the next months ahead of us. Doing nothing now would mean that we just accept this new reality of being locked in our houses and not being able to give our athletes the opportunity to do what they do best: compete at our events!
Therefore, I ask your support in our way forward, even though not all of our athletes are able to compete at this moment. But I am convinced that within the next months, the situation in Europe will improve and more countries will be able to join our events again. Until that time, Taekwondo Europe will lead the way like we have always done in the past.
Finally, the European Qualification Tournament for the Tokyo Olympics is scheduled for 30 and 31 January 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Please rest assure that this competition will only proceed if all our members are able to send a team to this most important event. If countries due to their national regulations cannot travel and participate at this event, Taekwondo Europe will reschedule. Although not preferably to host this event too late in the year 2021, rest assure that it is my main priority that all our members have the opportunity to send a team to this important qualifying event.
Yours,
Sakis Pragalos
President
