Amaury Russo (right), pictured at the WTF World Para-Taekwondo Championships, is keen to establish a stronger relationship with the sport ©WTF

The International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (Inas) President Amaury Russo says he is keen to establish a stronger relationship between the organisation he heads and Para-taekwondo.

Russo was speaking during the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) World Para-Taekwondo Championships here on Thursday (September 17), just three days before the week-long Inas Global Games get under way in in Ecuador.

"Inas is an organisation that is 30 years old, and was one of the founders of the Paralympic Movement," said the Brazilian.

"We are developing 11 sports worldwide and have three sports that are in the Paralympic Games – swimming, athletics and table tennis.

Asked what benefits Para-taekwondo offers for the intellectually impaired, Russo replied: "Taekwondo is good for developing five important attributes – co-ordination, agility, attention, concentration and knowledge."

Para-taekwondo offers two disciplines; kyorugi for the physically disabled and poomsae for the intellectually and neurologically impaired.

Both disciplines featured at the World Championships earlier this week with the poomsae events given pride of place on the centre mats, while fighting took place on the side mats.

An MoU between Amaury Russo's Inas and Chungwon Choue's WTF has been in place since June 2013
An MoU between Amaury Russo's Inas and Chungwon Choue's WTF has been in place since June 2013 ©WTF

Inas is paying particular attention to Para-taekwondo, given that it is on the Tokyo 2020 sports programme.

As things stands, only kyorugi will be on the programme, but that is something Russo hopes will change for the 2024 Paralympic Games. 

He estimates that there is a very significant number of intellectually impaired athletes around the world practicing taekwondo in academies, schools and clubs alongside able-bodied players.

"Inas has a project, and that is to have more intellectually impaired sports in the Paralympics, so we are working with new federations to include these new sports in the Games," added Russo.

"My goal is to strengthen the partnership between INAS and the WTF."

The WTF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Inas in June 2013, during a ceremony attended by Chungwon Choue, President of the WTF, and Nick Parr, executive director of Inas, at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne. 

The agreement aimed to develop the disciplines of Para-taekwondo, focusing particularly on poomsae.

Five months later, it was announced that Para-taekwondo would feature as a demonstration sport at the 2015 Inas Global Games. 



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