Saturday August 20, 2005
KUALA LUMPUR: The 14-member Malaysian team who arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Wednesday for the Asian Junior Taekwondo Championships were shockingly barred from taking part in the meet which started yesterday.
Team coach K.M. Rajendran said in a telephone interview that the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) stopped the team from taking part as they did not have the necessary endorsement from their national association, the Malaysia Taekwondo Association (MTA).
“The Asian Taekwondo Union, the organisers of the meet, gave us a verbal approval to participate. We also had letters of endorsement from the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and the National Sports Council (NSC).
“But when we landed in Kazakhstan, the WTF stopped us from taking part as our trip was not endorsed by the national body.
“I informed them that MTA was deregistered by the Malaysian Sports Commissioner in May. WTF said they had not been informed and thus will not allow us to take part without a letter from MTF,” said Rajendran.
“The ATU were willing to allow us to compete.
But ATU said they needed WTF's approval. Since WTF did not give their approval, we were not allowed to compete,” added Rajendran.
The team will be returning from Almathy on Monday.
Rajendran added that he will submit a report to NSC on what happened.
Source from http://www.thestar.com.my
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