Wushu championships July 27

NEWLY incorporated Wushu Association of Trinidad and Tobago will host the first ever National Wushu Championships at the Reinzi Complex, Couva, on July 27. Featuring a showing of Tai jiquan and Contemporary Wushu forms, the martial arts explosion is a drive by the Wushu Association to select a national team to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the future. The competition, which will coincide with a similar tournament in the United States, will feature competition in age groups from 5 and under to over 50 and is supported by the United States of American, Pan American and Caribbean Wushu Federations. All schools wishing to compete in the ground-breaking tournament are invited, as Association President Rahnan Khabir asserts that there is a strong emphasis on the potential of the young competitors, which will then be channelled by coaches who will instruct their charges in the compulsory routines needed to compete internationally.

This initiative of the association is to prepare them for competition as early as the 2004 Pan American Games in Washington DC and the United States Wushu Championships in Virginia, with a vision to compete in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. The competition is the first of its kind since the Wushu Association of Trinidad and Tobago was formed in 1989 and is part of its new vision which includes its recent incorporation in October 2002. For further competition information please call association General Secretary Irvin Rosales at 653-5045, Vice President Winston Eamsamooj at 764-8018 and Rhanan Khabir at 696-0876 or 681-0908.