DUSHANBE, December 12, Asia-Plus - Taekwondo-powered Tajikistan finished second in the 14 ^th International Taekwon-Do (ITF) Tournament “Peter the Great Open Europe Cup”, wining six golden, one silver and three bronze medals, Muhammadjon Tojiboyev, vice-president of Tajikistan’s Taekwon-Do (ITF) Federation, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

The tournament was held in Russia’s St. Petersburg from December 9 to December 10.  A team of St. Petersburg topped the tournament, wining six golden, five silver and five bronze medals, according to Tojiboyev.   

321 athletes from 12 countries competed for the Cup.     

Tajikistan’s team participated in this tournament six times and it won the main cup twice, in 1992 and 2000, while in other competitions it won small cups. 

The International Taekwon-Do “Cup of Peter the Great” tournament has been hosted annually since 1990, and the tournament has been held as the Open Europe Cup since 1996.

The International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) was founded in 1966 by Major-General Choi Hong Hi six years before his exile from South Korea in 1972.  The ITF is basically an extention of the Oh Do Kwan of the late 1960''s.  His first visit of good will to North Korea was in 1980, when he introduced Taekwon-Do there.  Being a private Canadian Business Corporation for most of it''s existance, it has claimed it is one of the two major international Taekwon-Do organizations, the other being the public Olympic International Federation called World Taekwondo Federation or WTF.