Chuncheon City, Gangwon Province, is launching a sports exchange with the city of Manchester, England.Chuncheon City Mayor Yuk Dong-han held a press conference at the city hall briefing room on the morning of the 4th and said, “As the center city of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), which hosted the WTF headquarters, we will be the first to start a taekwondo exchange with Manchester, England.”The city of Manchester is home to the headquarters of the British Taekwondo Federation and recently hosted the WTF Taekwondo Grand Prix Finals.In response, Vice Mayor Baek Chang-seok is in the UK to discuss sports exchanges with the city of Manchester.The main topics of discussion are sports exchanges related to taekwondo.
First, we will invite national teams, including Manchester officials, to the Chuncheon Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships, the World Taekwondo Culture Festival, and the World Junior Taekwondo Championships in Chuncheon next year, and then we will develop various tourism products related to the Taekwondo competitions held in both cities.Mayor Yuk explained that next year marks the 30th anniversary of taekwondo’s adoption as an Olympic sport, so it is significant for the two cities to cooperate in exchanging taekwondo.In addition, Manchester is known as a soccer city, so the plan is to continue sports exchanges through soccer.Manchester United, home to South Korea’s eternal captain Park Ji-sung, and Manchester City, the 2022-2023 English Premier League champions and 2023 Champions League winners, are based in Manchester.
In addition, Chuncheon-born players Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan currently play in the English Premier League.Mayor Yuk said, “With this taekwondo exchange, we plan to discuss exchange cooperation in various sports fields, including football,” and added, “I hope for your special attention and continued support for this cooperation to leap forward as a global taekwondo center.” Previously, the city held a unified launch ceremony for the Chuncheon Leisure Taekwondo Organizing Committee in October, attracting the headquarters of the World Taekwondo Federation to Samcheon-dong and holding the 무료슬롯게임 Taekwondo Culture Festival next year.