For its consistency in the last few years coupled with the performance of its athletes at most international competititions, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) has given Nigeria wildcard to compete at the 2014 World Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China.
At the WTF qualifiers concluded at the weekend in Taipei City, 39 countries including two African nations -Egypt and Morocco secured their places at the global championship holding later in the year in China.
Despite the inability of Nigerian athletes to secure a place from the qualifiers, the world ruling taekwondo body considered Nigeria’s pedigree at global stage coupled with the performance of the Team Nigeria nine-man contingent, decided to award one of the 20 wildcards available to Nigeria in the male event of the Olympics.
Meanwhile, out of the 74 qualification places up for grabs at the two-day qualification tournament, which was held at the Taipei Arena, host – Chinese Taipei clinched five tickets, showing its supremacy in taekwondo. The taekwondo competition of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games scheduled for August 17 to 21, 2014 in China.
Five countries took home four qualification places. They are Egypt, Azerbaijan, Russia, Belgium and Mexico, while four nations won three tickets, which are Ukraine, Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands.
Eight countries grabbed two qualification tickets. They are France, Colombia, Iran, Croatia, Thailand, the Great Britain, Italy and Brazil.
A total of 21 countries took one qualification place. They are Canada, Morocco, Slovenia, Romania, Poland, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Malaysia, Spain, Korea, Ecuador, Chile, Vietnam, Jordan, Singapore, Czech, Austria, Uzbekistan, the United States, and Puerto Rico.
Through the qualification tournament, a total of 74 qualification places, 37 for males and 37 for females, were selected. Out of a total of 100 places for the taekwondo competition at the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, the host country of China automatically earned six places, three for men and three for women, and the remaining 20 are the universal places, better known as wildcards. The host country did not participate in the qualification tournament.
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