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Gala Awards Dinner Feast for Mexico in Manchester
A feast is being brewed up for the WTF’s end-of-year finale in Mexico City - and the first course is being cooked in Manchester, the United Kingdom at the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 3.
In December, Mexico City will host the 2015 Grand Prix Final – the most important tourney for the sport’s elite athletes as they seek to grab ranking points in the run-up to Rio 2016.
It will also be hosting the World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships – a rip-roaring, national team fights fest that is arguably the world’s most exciting taekwondo event.
The Mexican capital is also hosting the sport’s year-end, back-slapping event: the black-tie WTF Gala Awards Dinner. At this event – inaugurated last year in Queretaro, Mexico on the occasion of the 2014 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final - the sport’s most popular male and female athletes, coach, referee and Member National Association will be chosen by votes.
And this year’s dinner will have a few new wrinkles.
“Last year, the ‘Player of the Year’ award was only on-site voting,” said WTF Director General Jin-bang Yang. “This year, we have preliminary voting in Manchester and then on-site voting. To be a finalist, the athletes have to be world ranking number one, two, three or four in Manchester, and number one or two in Mexico.”
The “Coach of the Year” award will be largely the same as last year: A shortlist of six coaches will be drawn up by the WTF’s Competition Supervisory Board, or CSB, with voting taking place on-site by all players, coaches and referees.
The”Referee of the Year” will be chosen from among the 50 referees shortlisted to officiate at the Olympics by the WTF CSB. The referees themselves will vote one of their number the man or woman of the year.
The “Member National Association of the Year” will be chosen by the WTF Leadership Group, including the president.
Finally there will be a new category – one that recognizes taekwondo’s trademark technique. And it is this award that Yang is most excited about: “The Best Kick of the Year.”
The WTF CSB is currently collecting video clips of spectacular, high-scoring kicks from all the WTF-promoted tournaments of the year – the World Taekwondo Grand Prix and the World Championships. Seven will be chosen by the CSB and during the Gala Dinner, all attendees will vote on-site.
“We will make these clips and will roll them during the dinner: They will show the beauty of taekwondo!” said Yang. “The Kick of the Year - just one shot!”
Source: WTF
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