GTF Pres Lartey Otu elected as Council Member of C’wlth Taekwondo Union

 The Ghana Taekwondo Federation (GTF) President, Mr Frederick Lartey Otu was on Tuesday elected as Council Member of the Commonwealth Taekwondo Union (CTU) at the World Taekwondo General Assembly held in Chuncheon, Korea.

Mr Otu, a Chief Revenue Officer of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), left Accra on Saturday, September 28, for the Com­monwealth Taekwondo Union and African Taekwondo Union meeting.

With his current position as a Council Member of the Union, Mr Otu, the 2015 SWAG Sports Federation President of the Year award winner, becomes the first Ghanaian to serve on all three international bodies of taekwon­

 The Commonwealth Tae­kwondo Union is dedicated to the maintenance of a sport’s governing body that engages with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) to be success­ful in lobbying for taekwondo inclusion in future Common­wealth Games.

Currently, he is a member of the Development Committee of World Taekwondo and a Council Member of the African Tae­kwondo Union.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times Sports, yesterday, Mr Otu who is also the 2nd Vice President of the Com­monwealth Games Association, Ghana expressed gratitude to the delegates for voting massively for him.

“For me, this is a great feat for Ghana taekwondo. This presents an opportunity to share experiences at the very top and bring some of the ideas from the advance countries to Ghana,” he

 noted.

According to him, the new CTU Council was poised to un­dertake the task of ensuring that taekwondo becomes a Common­wealth sport in the near future.

“This is very high on the agenda. It is our hope that we can lobby the international body to include our sport in the Games.”

As a Fellow of the Institute of Directors-Ghana, Mr Fred­erick Otu attributed his sharp rise in the sport’s administration to humility, discipline and hard work.

“These are virtues I want to keep for a long time because there is a long way ahead of me. There is a lot more work to be done to make the sport attractive to a lot more people,” said Mr Otu.

Mr Otu has been a leading figure in Ghana as far as tae­kwondo was concerned.

Having led the GTF for sev­eral years, he rode on the back of his excellent leadership qualities and won an election to become the Treasurer of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) and also serves as the 2nd Vice President of the Commonwealth Games Association, Ghana.

Under his stewardship, he has chalked many honours, the latest of which was the success at the 13th African Games competition hosted by Ghana.

In the Martial Arts category, taekwondo was the only sport that won medals for Ghana.

The winners included Erica Tuagbor – Silver medal, Kelvin Amuzu – Silver medal and Gerald Bernard Sarfo – Bronze medal.

Patricia Kyeremaa, a para taekwondo athlete also became a paralympian after earning a Wild Card to take part in the Paralym­pic Games in France 2024.

 BY ANDREW NORTEY

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