When we talk about Latin American Taekwondo, all roads lead us to Mexico, so we decided to speak to the Mexican Taekwondo Federation, in this case, to its President, Juan Manuel López Delgado. Due to all the achievements in the sports and institutional area, Mexico has maintained its historical position as a global sports reference. In the past years, it has even surpassed much of the achievements made so far. As already said in the beginning, masTaekwondo.com had again the opportunity to speak to the FEMEXTKD President.

It is a pleasure to greet you Juan Manuel, we would like to know how do you feel about the qualification of the whole team for the London 2012 Olympic Games?

Nice to meet you, first of all. We are living this moment with joy, but there was a great tension in the moment because it was very hard to achieve it but it was well deserved for all the work done by the Mexican Taekwondo family, which has plenty of possibilities of reaching the podium in London 2012. We are also very compromised of keeping up the hard work during the next semester, prior to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

 

In this Continental Qualifier, the Mexican Federation showed again its capability of having a perfect organization. How was it to prepare the welcoming of all countries of the continent and WTF members?

As you know, the Mexican Taekwondo Federation (FEMEXTKD) has a wonderful staff and an extraordinary working body, where everyone knows his/her own tasks and where the work is being distributed in a reasonable manner. There were several meetings, an excellent planning, and according to the WTF members’ opinion it is one of the best events one can remember. This makes us feel proud and satisfied of our Federation and its working team.

 

This year Continental Qualifier, and one month before, Pan American Games; last year: Junior World Taekwondo Championships and Professional World League. What is the next event that you have to offer us, could we talk about a World Taekwondo Championship in Mexico?

We have the support of the sports authorities in this country, and our Federal and State Government has always been keen to help us, so we proposed a World Taekwondo Championship. With this Continental Qualifier and last year’s Junior World Championship we demonstrated and showed to the WTF and the world community that we can prepare a well-organized event, with operative quality. In April a decision will be made between Croatia and Mexico, so now we just have to wait for the decision of the WTF, to start planning everything in order to do it in the best way.

 

How will the Mexican Olympic team prepare its road to London?

By the FEMEXTKD Technical Commission’s decision, there will be a National Olympic Qualifier, where there will be two more competitors who will be integrated to the current qualified team, together with their reserve. There would be four in each category that qualified, and then we will decide according to several criteria, who will represent us in the London 2012 Olympic Games. As you know, Mexico has 4 to 5 great Taekwondo athletes in each category, who could represent our country, therefore we will send those that have a better preparation and show a better competitive quality in the moment of the final decision.

An event that is surprising due to the call of thousands of competitors from Mexico and other countries is the International Festival of Black Belts, that will take place in Aguascalientes. What could you tell us in advance, about the organization with respect to the 2012 edition?

We have an event that grows each year, and we know this year will be greater than the preceding one, where we gathered more than 4,000 competitors around the country, and also some foreign athletes that we had invited. This year, we have the confirmation of important countries such as England, Azerbaijan, United States, Colombia, and there are some other pending confirmations. In the junior level, it is one of the strongest competitions, because it helps for the final preparation of state teams prior to the National Olympics 2012. We hope that the other foreign countries will join and we can have one of the best events in our sport’s history.

Prior to the 6th Festival of Black Belts 2012, the National Olympic Qualifier will take place, where the purpose is to select the other two competitors of each qualified category for London 2012. This competition will take place on February 2-3 in the same location.

 

Would you like to thank anyone?

I would like to deeply thank our competitors for their effort and our sports authorities in this country, to the CONADE and CODEME, and the Mexican Olympic Committee, for their support, for being part of this achievement, and to the Mexican Taekwondo Family. But I would like to give special thanks to your team, which, as a medium for communication help us in the diffusion of Taekwondo in order to make it a successful and promising sport with great things for the future.

 

Thank you very much for your time, Juan Manuel.

Thank you.

 

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Original Note (Spanish): Juan Manuel López: “México podría ser sede del próximo Mundial”

 

Matías Rojas, Exclusive masTaekwondo.com

matiasrojas@mastaekwondo.com

masTaekwondo+

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