NOTE TO EDITORS:

From: The Newfoundland and Labrador WTF Taekwondo Association
Re: Participation in the 2002 Provincial Winter Games

We regret to announce that as of January 21, 2002, the Newfoundland and Labrador Taekwondo Association has withdrawn its application to be a part of the 2002 Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games.

Unfortunately, a shortage of human resources within our organization was a primary factor in the decision to withdraw. While the sport has many active clubs in the province, the majority of accredited officials are accumulated in only a few of the nine regions as defined by the games committee. Among other things, this has impacted on our ability to successfully conduct the Taekwondo event according to the guidelines provided. This is a situation that we will be attempting to rectify in the very near future.

We wish to the thank, the games committee, Minister Kevin Aylward, Jim Tee and in particular Patti Thorne, who helped us immensely in overcoming many of the obstacles in our path, her commitment to sport in this province is to be applauded.

In many ways this experience has been a positive one, in that we have had the opportunity to explore and redefine many of our existing competition administration policies with a clearer vision for the development of our sport in the province. We now have to focus on cultivating the reform that evidently must be made in our organization and we look forward to bringing about an end to the regional disparity with regard to these issues.

For further information, please contact:

Wayne Simon - Provincial president.
Telephone: (709) 643-3340

Reg Cantwell - Eastern vice president.
Telephone: (709) 754-5425

2002 01 31                         10:25 a.m.