Australian Taekwondo wishes Sport Inclusion Australia and all athletes participating in the Virtus Oceania Asia Games 2022 a successful event.

The games, which is for Para athletes, will take place from November 5 at the Sleeman Sports Complex in Brisbane and see some 25 countries attending.

The Taekwondo component of the games, consisting of Poomsae competition, will take place on November 9 with athlete representatives from Australia, the Solomon Islands, Columbia and the USA.

Australian Taekwondo is proud to support inclusive events such as the Virtus Oceania Asia Games. Although participation in the games from Taekwondo athletes is relatively small, Australian Taekwondo will continue to work with our partners in delivering quality events across a variety of para categories.

The Virtus Oceania Asia Games follow on from the successful 2019 INAS Games held at the same centre pictured below, which saw Australian Taekwondo partner with Inclusions Australia, INAS, the international federation for athletes with an intellectual impairment and World Taekwondo to conduct the event.

The same Taekwondo team that worked on the INAS games was again called on to facilitate the Virtus Oceania Asia Games.

Australian Taekwondo, through National Performance Director Mr Ross Hartnett, has worked diligently with World Taekwondo and Sport Inclusion Australia to ensure Taekwondo was included in the Games.

This resulted in Australian Taekwondo signing an MOU with the Oceania Asia Organising Committee to manage Taekwondo's technical and competition management for the event.

Mr Hartnett (Technical Delegate) used the services of Mr Michael Tan (Competition Manager) in the same organising role as the 2019 INAS Games and who has worked hard to ensure the organisation of the event runs smoothly.

Australian Taekwondo has had considerable success in the Para competition field, with Janine Watson winning World Para Championships Gold and Paralympics bronze in Tokyo. Janine continues to be an important contributor toward our efforts and initiatives in improving opportunities for para Taekwondo.

The Virtus Oceania Asia Games are among a suite of initiatives being driven by Australian Taekwondo around inclusion, which includes a broader range of para divisions and Para classifiers course at the Australian Taekwondo National Championships presented by OBG Productions, and bids to World Taekwondo to host several Para events next year.

Australian Taekwondo would like to thank Australian Taekwondo Queensland for supplying mats and scoring systems for the event. We also thank our referees and officials for supporting the event. Without their valuable contribution, we would not be able to implement such events.

Our officials for the Virtus Oceania Asia Games 2022 and timetable are as follows.

OFFICIALS

Technical Delegate:
Ross Hartnett

Competition Manager:
Michael Tan

Competition Supervisory Board:
Ross Hartnett
Muhktar Kadiri
Michael Tan

Chief Referee:
Muhktar Kadiri

Referees:
Maddy Houston
Ki Joo Kim
Sky Han