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To maintain Taekwondo as an Olympic discipline, officials have revised rules and are seeking greater publicity for the Korean martial art.
The World Taekwondo Federation announced the revised rules of Taekwondo on Sunday in a ceremony attended by representatives from about 30 countries. The highlight is the reduction of the arena size from 10 sq. meters to 8 sq. meters, which is expected to induce players to become more aggressive, with less space to retreat from attacks.
Players will win different points when they attack different parts of the opponent's body. In the past, the point system was simple -- a point when for striking the opponent's body and two points for striking the face. But from now on players win an extra point when they succeed in sophisticated attack techniques.
Under the new rules, they can win a point if they strike any part of the head, not just the face. So far, the game was declared officially finished if either of the players won 12 points or if the difference between the two players' points was more than seven points, but that will no longer hold good.
Under the new rules, players will also win points when their opponent receives a warning or demerit points.
To improve fairness, it will be possible to reverse the referee's decision if found to be an obvious misjudgment. But the WTF decided to postpone judgment based on video images for fear that this process will lead to delays. The WTF will submit the revised rules to its executive committee in Ankara, Turkey on Dec. 15.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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