World Taekwondo Championships Will Be In Madrid

New Zealand will send its first fully representative team in 11 years to the WTF World Taekwondo Championships to be held in Madrid, Spain between the 13-17 April 2005.

In January a selection tournament was organised and run by the Unification Steering Committee after an 11-year split between the various WTF Taekwondo organisations in New Zealand.

The unified tournament brought the best Taekwondo talent together from four different Taekwondo organisations and was held under WTF international competition rules.

Ten fighters and six officials will fly out on Sunday for the World Championships which are the biggest Taekwondo competition in the WTF calender after the Olympics.

There will be competitors from 179 countries gathered in Spain for five days of competition in the full contact sport and Korean martial art.

There are eight weight divisions in both men's and women's competitions.

It is the 17th men's (and 10th women's) world champs which is held every two years.

The tournament will commence at 9am each day with the semifinals and finals to be held in the early evening and broadcast live on TV in the host country.

The New Zealand team is very much one for the future with half the team being aged 20 or under with the youngest being Tauranga's Eleanor Currie, 16, who will fight in the lightweight division while her club mate Nicky Miller, a welterweight, is 19,

Auckland has three exciting youngsters, heavyweight Dafydd Sanders, 20, flyweight Armando Abdi, 18, and featherweight Logan Campbell, 18. Emphasising the youthful nature of the team is the fact that the oldest member of the team is female featherweight Aroha Miller who is 25 and one of four fighters from Christchurch.

Welterweight Danny Cartlidge, 24, and flyweights Desmond Allen, 22 and Andrea Kilday, 22 are also from Christchurch while Wellington lightweight Andrew Brooks is 24.

NZ team Women Flyweight Andrea Kilday (Hornby) Featherweight Aroha Miller (Christchurch) Lightweight Eleanor Currie (Tauranga) Welterweight Nicki Miller (Tauranga) Men Bantamweight Armando Abdi (St Lukes) Flyweight Desmond Allen (Avonhead) Featherweight Logan Campbell (Se Jong) Lightweight Andrew Brooks (Upper Hutt) Welterweight Danny Cartlidge (Christchurch) Heavyweight Dafydd Sanders (Auckland)

Officials.

New Zealand Team Manager - Mansour Ansari Head of Male Team: - Matt Ransom Male Team Coach: - Jeff Razavi Female Team Coach: - Kesi O'Neill Head of Female Team - Sharleen Wright

Timetable April 12 12:00 Head of Team Meeting and Drawing Lots 20:00 Opening Ceremony April 13

09:00 Matches - Male and female Light weight category (Andrew Brooks, Eleanor Currie)

April 14 09:00 Matches - Male and female Fly & Middle weight categories (Desmond Allen, Andrea Kilday)

April 15 09:00 Matches - Male and female Fin & Welter weight categories (Danny Cartlidge, Nicky Miller)

April 16 09:00 Matches - Male and female Bantam & Heavy weight categories (Armando Abdi, Dafydd Sanders)

April 17 09:00 Matches - Male and female Feather weight category (Logan Campbell, Aroha Miller)

18:00 Closing Ceremony

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