Taekwondo duo in South Korea

Luciah Phahla

Maseru

The taekwondo duo of Moloisane Marumo and Ramosoeu Nkuebe are in South Korea for a month-long competition and training stint.

Marumo and Nkuebe together with national coach Du-Khwi Lee left Lesotho on Monday.

They competed in the Gyeongju Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships which started last Friday and ended on Tuesday.

Marumo and Nkuebe will remain in South Korea for further training with Lee.

According to Lesotho Taekwondo Association (LTA) general secretary Teboho Masimong, the duo stood to earn world ranking points at the Korea Open Championships.

“The Korea Open Championships are a G2 (competition) where they could earn points to help them be better ranked,” Masimong told thepost on Tuesday.

He added: “Our players are unfortunate when it comes to (internationals) championships because they are always lowly ranked. If they are highly or better ranked they will be seeded or will not start in the preliminary stages, instead they will start one or two fights away from the quarterfinals. What’s good about that is that they will still be injury free (by the quarterfinal stage).”

Lesotho’s national team is under the mentorship of South Korean coach Lee who arrived in the country in 2014.

Lee is expected to remain in Lesotho until 2024 and is moulding local fighters for future international competitions such as the Olympics and African Games. This trip to South Korea is part of that programme.

Lesotho will have no taekwondo athletes at this year’s Rio Olympics in August.

Meanwhile, LTA will hold a general tournament for children and juniors at Sefika High School on July 23.

“The main purpose of the tournament is to keep the players motivated because they have only been training. It is open for all the clubs around the country. For the children’s category it will be kids under (the age of) 14 and for juniors it will be kids from 14 to 17 years,” LTA public relations officer Likhama Leuta told thepost on Tuesday.

“It has been a long time without hosting this tournament because of finances but this time around we thought we should squeeze it in and make it happen,” he added.

Leuta said LTA will host a similar tournament next month but for seniors.

“After this tournament we will host a senior tournament in August with the same purpose. The dates will be confirmed,” he said.