Hosted at the Olympic Judo Training Centre the first demo team festival featured seven groups representing Chelyabinsk taekwondo schools.

The several hundred participants in the event were given a welcomed surprise when the mascots - a lion and a bear - made their first life-sized appearance where they led out the teams, shook hands and took photos with all of the young competitors at the festival.

The winners' prize at the festival ended up in the hands of the team from Koryo school for their performance, 'Transformers'.

They were awarded a certificate for RUB15,000 (£172,000/$265,000/€218,000) for their performance, which was judged by figureheads in the sport and business markets across the region.

The two mascots for the 2015 World Taekwondo Championship made their first life-sized appearance at the Olympic Judo Training Centre in Chelyabinsk ©World Taekwondo 2015



"The first demo team festival of the regional taekwondo federation is a new step in development of our sport," said team coach Maxim Karpov, also Executive Director of the regional taekwondo federation.

"We are extremely happy with the performance of all seven teams, and we are planning to expand the scope of this event in the future.

"Today we managed to create yet another big taekwondo festival where every team had cups and diplomas to leave with.

"We are happy that the kids and their coaches liked the idea of demo performances but we are even happier that our participants got to know the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships mascots.

"I myself saw the life-size figures of lion and bear for the first time today, and I liked them a lot."

The festival at the Olympic Centre was followed by an unusual contest organised by the 2015 World Taekwondo Championship Organising Committee.

It pitted three teams - the athletes headed by the world taekwondo champion Olga Ivanova, the volunteers of the 2015 World Championships and the organisers - against one another in a snow figure contest.

Volunteers for the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships won the snow contest with their recreation of the bear mascot ©World Taekwondo 2015



The 30 participants from the three teams were given one hour to create three snow characters, with their work dedicated to the World Taekwondo Federation President Chungwon Choue's birthday, which happened on the competition day, December 20.

The competition saw the volunteers team come out on top as they created the bear mascot for the Championship.

Second place went to the Organising Committee team as they created the lion, while the athletes' team came third with their creation of a taekwondo athlete in the splits.

The two mascots for the Championships joined the participants at the event as they continue to excite the public in the build up to next year's Championships, due to take place in Chelyabinsk from May 12 to 18.

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