NOCZ president Foloko commends Teulings taekwondo athletes

National Olympic Committee of Zambia (NOCZ) president Alfred Foloko has commended athletes from Taekwondo Federation of Zambia for their amazing participation in the Teulings Youth Sports Challenge.

Foloko says the taekwondo federation is doing a tremendous job by engaging athletes as young as 5years old in the youth league which the OYDC Zambia hosts every weekend.

He says the Olympic movement in Zambia is happy to see federations engaging young athletes in different youthful competitions stating that if well prepared the young athletes can in future represent Zambia well at local and international games.

“I would like to commend Taekwondo Federation of Zambia for what they are doing for the country. I love the age group of taekwondo, I can see athletes as young as five, six and seven years are taking part in the sport. I think that’s where we should start as a nation. We cannot just be recruiting athletes who are already in their twenties. For us to do well at local and international games we need to have national teams of these young ones. The age group also matters on how we run our sport in Zambia. What I have seen today at OYDC is very commendable and should be embraced by other federations” he said.

OYDC on 25 September 2021 hosted the Teulings/OYDC Youth Sports Challenge involving six sports disciplines netball, taekwondo, teqball, beach volleyball, rugby and handball. OYDC programmes officer Likemore Mahunje, says Saturday’s games were well conducted adding that athletes did not only come to compete for the games but to also have themselves checked by health specialists the OYDC works with.

He adds that the Teulings League is getting intense as teams are expected to scope awards during the grand finale at the end of the year.