The newly-elected President of The Gambia Taekwondo Association, Ba Kebba Suso has promised to uplift the standard of Taekwondo in The Gambia before the end of his executive’s two-year term in office.
Suso was unanimously elected on Wednesday along with three other executive positions in an extra-ordinary congress following the suspension of former President Adama Samba for alleged gross misconduct and violation of the Gambia Taekwondo Association Constitution.
“We have drafted a roadmap that entails our plan of action to guide us to develop Taekwondo in this country,” Suso tells The Chronicle shortly after his election. “It’s a matter of moving it from where it is now to an advanced level with the collaboration of the clubs”.
For the past two years, Gambian Taekwondo has been in the doldrums due to leadership crisis. For Suso, his executive will rely on capacity building, accountability and technical development to take the sport to another level. “Taekwondo has been led by greedy and selfish people in the past and we are here to change that. But we cannot do this without the support of the clubs,” he said. “All practicing Taekwondo clubs should come and affiliate with us so that we can work in harmony for the development of the sport”.
Suso also said, part of his executive’s short-term plans is to launch a “School Taekwondo Programme” that would be a tournament circuit designed to give school-children the best experience in competing, overall ethics and politeness in Taekwondo competition. “The target is to have a strong junior team for the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar in 2021’’.
The Congress was attended by five registered clubs. Omar Conteh, master of ‘Active’ Taekwondo Club in Bundung, urged the new executive to uphold self-esteem, serve with patriotism and devotion in order to build solid relations with clubs and athletes. “I have high hopes in this executive,” Omar says. “I urge them to help us with training materials like uniforms and kicking pads because we need them during our sessions”.
