14th January, 2013 KUALA LUMPUR: Taekwondo Malaysia ™ President Tan Sri Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar has urged the Malaysian Taekwondo Association (MTA) to join forces under one roof to ensure the continuous development of the sport in the country. He said prior to this, TM had made the same request to MTA to join them but only a few members of them had agreed to do so. TM was established three years ago to save the Malaysian taekwondo after the Sports Commissioner’s Office had deregistered MTA as a sports body, allegedly for hindering the development of taekwondo in the country. “MTA’s reluctance to join TM means they have denied a chance for taekwondo exponents to be involved in the international stage as WTF only recognises us as the right governing body of taekwondo in Malaysia. “I feel they should think about the (future) of the exponents but not themselves,” he said during an exclusive interview with Bernama at Wisma Bernama, here, recently. Tunku Imran who is also the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) President said to date, TM has 260,000 members across the country and he targets the number to double by 2016. “I don’t think any other association in Malaysia that has as much membership as us and I hope we can achieve that target,” he said. Touching on grassroots development to unearth new talent in taekwondo, Tunku Imran said TM had intensified various programmes such as organising a taekwondo championship for under age groups last year. He said the tournament was held with the cooperation of SportsExcel and were divided into two groups, namely 10-13 and 14-17 years old. “Through this tournament, we will identify potential exponents to be included in our junior programme and besides that, we are also working closely with the National Sports Council (NSC) to scout new talents in this sports,” he said. He also set a lofty target for the national taekwondo squad, to clinch an elusive gold medal in the Olympics by 2020. Three cities have made bids to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to organise the biggest summer games, namely Istanbul (Turkey); Tokyo (Japan) and Madrid (Spain). “If our athletes get the medal before the 2020 Olympics, it is good for our athletes (and also the country),” he said. For the record, the national taekwondo exponents have participated in five Olympics Games namely in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing in 2008 but none of them have won medals. | 
