Meghalaya’s Taekwondo masters on a ‘mission’ to revive the lost glory of this martial art form

SHILLONG: As the saying goes, 'Together we can', a group of Taekwondo ( a form of martial art) enthusiasts including masters is on a mission to revive the lost glory of the once sought after sporting activity in the state which is currently bogged down by negligence.

Breathing life into this game once again, a group of masters got together and took the onus on themselves to collectively revive the lost glory wherein a number of prestigious awards have been won by taekwondo fighters hailing from the state in the past.

Lost and busy in their struggle to earn livelihood for years now, the sporting activity seems to have lost its former glory with only few takers and few achievers.

But, its better late than never for the taekwondo masters or 'Senseis' as they are known generally in the sport, to popularise this sport and ensure that the chant 'hu-ha' is once again resounded in every nook and corner of the state.

In this line, the masters are working day in and out and their efforts bore fruits when the state level taekwondo championship 2016 was organized after a lull of ten years at U- Tirot Sing indoor stadium.

Much to the relief and sense of accomplishment of the masters now turned a cop, teacher, accountant etc, over Two-hundred participants from eleven clubs participated in the event.

"The sport is slowly dwindling away and the number of participants is overwhelming and a boost to our effort to revive the sport once again," said one of the renowned masters from and the recipient of many international and national medals, UN Shukla.

Informing that the Goodwill tournament was earlier an annual event and was being held again after a gap of ten years, Shukla observed that the standards of the sport had relatively gone down and the reasons for this state of affairs also lies on the improper functioning of the earlier taekwondo federation.

"The state body that was last elected some 7-8 years ago to look into the welfare of taekwondo totally ignored the sport," he said adding that whereas the state government was always cooperative and helpful.

He, however said that the Taekwondo Federation of India (TFI) new body is showing it's keenness to revive the sport and is totally dedicated in this regard.

Skipping back the pages of glorious days, Sukhla recalled that the city alone had over 25 clubs once which has come down to 14-15 functional clubs now.

Elaborating more on the aim of the masters, Shukla said, " We don't want mere swell in the number of participants but we want to win medals in the national and international arena so that the lost glory of taekwondo can be rebuilt".

" We want and are in the process of building a solid Meghalaya team to represent in the national level first," he add.

Since 2000, taekwondo has been one of only two Asian martial arts (the other being judo) that are included in the Olympic Games. It became a demonstration event at the 1988 games in Seoul, and became an official medal event at the 2000 games in Sydney. In 2010, taekwondo was accepted as a Commonwealth Games sport.