Two nationals to umpire WTF African Qualifications

TEHRAN, Feb. 02 (MNA) – Two Iranian taekwondo referees will judge the African Qualification Tournament in Morocco. As part of the qualifying phase for taekwondo at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, African taekwondo practitioners will face each other at the African Qualification Tournament to be held on February 5–7 in Morocco’s Agadir. The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) has officially invited Iran’s Shahram Arbabi and Hafez Mahdavi to umpire the competitions. In order to take part at 2016 Rio Olympics, Iranian referees need to judge at various tournaments under the auspices of WTF. Eventually, a total of 29 referees will be elected by the Umpire Committee of WTF to travel to Rio. So far, 48 taekwondo athletes have secured places in 2016 Olympic Games on the basis of world ranking while 16 others have received quotas through the European Qualification Tournament held in January. Yet, 16 other athletes will receive tickets to Rio by competing at the African Qualification Tournament. Iran’s national taekwondo team has so far ensured three spots in the Men’s section by Farzan Ashourzadeh, Mahdi Khodabakhsh and Sajad Mardani. Women taekwondo practitioners of the country will attend the Asian Qualification Tournament on April 19−20, 2016 in Philippines’ Manila in an attempt to get two tickets to the 2016 Olympic arena.