NORTH CAROLINA--Grandmaster Theo Liu of the King Yen Taekwondo School was honoured at the 2018 Global Open Taekwondo Festival. Liu represented St. Maarten at the Festival in North Carolina on April 27 and 28. Grandmaster Jun Lee founder of Black Belt world school in North Carolina presented Grandmaster Liu with a leadership award in recognition of his leadership, support and dedication to the growth of Taekwondo in St. Maarten and in the world.
Liu was invited by Grandmaster Lee (9th Dan) organizer of this tournament which is the Carolina qualifier for the US Open Taekwondo Hanmadang in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on July 27 and July 28, 2018.
The VIP stage was occupied by many well-known Taekwondo Grandmasters in the world from Korea, India, Canada, USA, Panama, Costa Rica as well St. Maarten.
On Friday there was a seminar of the new rules and regulations of Taekwondo Hanmadang. G.Master Liu explain briefly that with Hanmadang, the leaders in Taekwondo will bring back the martial art and push the sport side more to the background. With participation in the Olympics it become more materialized causing less concentration on the mental and educational values.
All Grandmasters are concern with the aggressive development of technology that have some positive effects for humankind but has enormous negative influences on our youth the world of tomorrow.
The second half of the day was for black belt Dan promotion/exams whereby G.Master Liu was a member in the examination committee. 85 students went up for their black belt testing.
The second day featured a Hanmadang Taekwondo competition including sparring. Different countries were present with a total of 386 participants. Participating in individual as teams in forms (Poomsees, breaking, weapons and sparring.
