Thirty seven (37) young athletes turned up on the final day of the RT Xtreeme Fiji club modern Taekwondo international training camp at the Sanatan Hall in Samabula, Suva, on Thursday.

Speaking to SUNsports yesterday, head instructor of RT Xtreeme Fiji Ronit Kumar said the two-day training camp was conducted by 8th dan Grand Master and Multi-time Olympic coach Andy Rutten.

“It is the second training camp that was held, the first one was the international summer camp in December last year,” he said.

“The training camp is about modern taekwondo, mostly it’s a development programme for kids and all the participants that’s registered here today (Thursday).”

Kumar indicated that Taekwondo is an Olympic sport, and Fiji will need to improve in their game to compete internationally.

“Our grandmaster Rutten has also taken some Pacific countries for the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games respectively,” he said.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to work with him and get my development programme going with all these young generation here.”

Kumar was pleased with the attendance of the young athletes on the two-day training camp.

“I set a target of making it a bit bigger in December, maybe targeting 50 members,” he said.

“All of my members registered with the club are not here due to commitments.”

Kumar was hopeful that they would recruit more senior athletes or students for more development.

“It is more intense for the senior athletes. I’m really happy that I’ve got a good support from the Fiji Sanatan fraternity. We look forward in working with them in community services with guest speaking on how one can divert themselves from stress, peer pressure and drugs.”

Kumar said the sport of taekwondo can bring about a positive change in an individual’s life.

“An individual can take up the sport as wellness, weight management programme and for discipline as well,” he said.

“You look at the crowd it’s almost 70 per cent of female dominated club so I’m very proud of that being the head instructor and owner.”

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