Astana, 12 November. The finals of the world Grand Prix series in taekwondo and para taekwondo will take place on 27–29 November in Astana, at the Zhaksylyk Ushkempirov Martial Arts Palace, and Kazakhstan is hosting a tournament of this category, G-10, for the first time, the capital’s akimat said.
The Grand Prix Final will bring together 128 taekwondo athletes in eight Olympic weight categories. Besides medals, they will compete for ranking points that count towards qualification for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles: the winner will receive 100 points, the silver medallist 60 and the bronze medallists 36 each. This year the stages of the series were held in Rome, Muju and Paris.
According to the akimat, Astana will welcome Paris Olympic champions Park Tae-joon and Kim Yu-jin of South Korea and Arian Salimi of Iran, as well as Tokyo Olympic champion Vito Dell’Aquila of Italy. World champion Maria Clara Pacheco of Brazil, who has won all three stages of the series this season, will also compete.
Kazakhstan’s team will be represented by Batyrkhan Toleugali (under 80 kg), Temirlan Tleules (under 58 kg), Mariya Sevostyanova (under 57 kg) and Rita Bakisheva (under 49 kg). Sevostyanova took bronze at the Paris stage this season. At the Muju stage, bronze was won by another Kazakhstani athlete, Aidana Kumartayeva.
The programme will open on 27 November with the para taekwondo Grand Prix Final. About 70 athletes of the K44 sport class are expected; they will compete in ten weight categories for points towards qualification for the Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Among the men, Kazakhstan has entered Nyshanbek Aktileuov (under 58 kg), Aibek Zhumangali (under 63 kg), Dinmukhammed Askar (under 70 kg) and Nurlan Dombayev (under 80 kg). Among the women, Milana Krasavtseva (under 52 kg), Kamilya Dosmalova (under 57 kg) and Maryam Salimgereyeva (under 65 kg) will compete. Bouts begin at 09:00, and the opening ceremony is scheduled for the same day.
The taekwondo Grand Prix Final will take two days. On the first, 28 November, the men compete in the under 68 kg and under 80 kg categories and the women in the under 49 kg, under 57 kg and over 67 kg categories. Preliminary rounds and quarter-finals will run from 09:00 to 13:00, semi-finals from 15:00 to 16:00 and finals from 16:00 to 19:00. On the second, 29 November, the men compete in the under 58 kg and over 80 kg categories and the women in the under 67 kg category. On that day the preliminary rounds and quarter-finals will run from 09:00 to 12:00, semi-finals from 13:00 to 14:00 and finals from 14:00 to 16:00.
The akimat gives no information about ticket sales or broadcasts.
What it means: Astana closes the season of the world series: after three stages in Europe and Korea, the highest-ranked athletes will come here, with points towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles at stake. For Kazakhstan it is the first tournament of this level at home.
Background: The abbreviation WT in the tournament’s name stands for World Taekwondo, the sport’s international federation. The G-10 category shows the tournament’s weight in its ranking: a win here is worth 100 points.
