Australia will be strongly represented at the prestigious Kimunyong Cup International Open Taekwondo Championships, scheduled to be held from August 2-6 at the world-class Muju Taekwondowon in Jeollabuk-do, South Korea.
Ten athletes from the National Performance Center, including Damon Motta (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Bailey Lewis (City West Taekwondo, VIC), Matthew Summerfield (Rawlins Taekwondo, WA), William Afonczenko (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Leon Sejranovic (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Liam Sweeney (One Taekwondo, QLD), Saffron Tambyrajah (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Stacey Hymer (Notorious Martial Arts, VIC), Rebecca Murray (Edge Taekwondo, QLD) and Reba Stewart (Halls Taekwondo, VIC) will take to the mats under the watchful eye of Australia’s National Performance Coach, Seokhun Lee, and National Program Coach, Ryan Carneli. Amber Bennett from the Victorian Institute of Sport will also accompany the team as a physiotherapist.
The Kimunyong Cup is a World Taekwondo Sanctioned G1 event, open to a maximum of 3,000 competitors. It is organised by the Kimunyong Sports Committee to pay tribute to the late Dr Un-Yong Kim, the founding President of Kukkiwon and the World Taekwondo Federation and a former International Olympic Committee Vice President.
The tournament adopts a single-elimination system for each division, with different competition times. The senior and junior divisions will have 2 minutes, three rounds, with a one-minute break, while the cadet division will have 90 seconds, three rounds, with a one-minute break.
Athlete seeding is determined based on the World Taekwondo World Ranking as of July 1, 2023, and unseeded athletes will be drawn randomly through a computer program.
After the Kimunyong Cup, the Australian representation will continue at the Chuncheon Korea Open, followed by the Polish Open and Paris Grand Prix.
