SEOUL (June 15, 2005) — As part of its ongoing reform efforts, the World Taekwondo Federation will hold its first ad-hoc committee meeting on electronic protectors in July, 2005 in Seoul. Several electronic protector manufacturers will also demonstrate their products on the same day.

The WTF ad-hoc committee, whose composition will be finalized this month, will hold its inaugural meeting at Kyung Hee University in Seoul on July 20, 2005.

Later in the day, there will be demonstrations of electronic protectors by several electronic protector makers at the same university before members of the ad-hoc committee and the WTF Executive Council.

Among the companies most likely to attend the demonstrations are LaJust Inc., a Korean firm; ATM, an Austrian manufacturer; and Globility-Management Ltd., a German company.

According to the reform recommendations, the WTF will launch the ad-hoc committee on electronic protectors to make judging at competitions more objective.

"The launch of the ad-hoc committee is in line with our action programs related to the reform recommendations, and we aim to apply the new scoring system using electronic protectors to the Taekwondo competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," said WTF President Chungwon Choue.

On May 27, the WTF sent a notice to the presidents of its member national associations, asking them to provide the WTF with relevant information on the usage of electronic protectors, technological aspects, company information and their experience with the system.

The ad-hoc committee is intended to develop criteria for evaluating the technological aspects of electronic protectors, with regard to the technical needs of Taekwondo, as well as to proceed with reviewing the technology currently available to the WTF.

Presently, Taekwondo competitions do no use electronic protectors for scoring; the judges determine visually whether a contestant's kick has struck the opponent on the trunk or face in such a way and with enough force to qualify as a point. However, experts have raised concerns that humans cannot adequately size up a move due to the speed, the possibility that their view is blocked, and other factors.

For those reasons, the WTF Reform Committee, which was launched in November last year and concluded its operations in February this year, recommended a highly effective and accurate electronic protector to be a valuable addition to the sport by helping make judging more objective. Their introduction might also result in the need for fewer judges at a given competition, thus lowering expenses for the host city