George Ashiru | |
---|---|
Born | Nigeria |
Style | Taekwondo |
Rank | 9th dan taekwondo |
George Ashiru is a Nigerian Taekwondo grandmaster and sports leader, political leader, and an entrepreneur.
He was born to a royal household in the southwestern part of Nigeria. His father became an international diplomat, working in Brussels with the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group. His mother was a successful entrepreneur and one time president of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, Kaduna. She was a US "Visitor", having participated in the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) of the US Government. George was educated in Nigeria and Britain and studied in diverse schools like Irwin Academy (UK), Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Nigeria, Federal Government College, Kaduna, Nigeria, University of Lagos and Middlesex University (UK), and became a professional Fellow of Institute of Consulting and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute of the United Kingdom. He earned the qualification of Certified Management Consultant.
Seven times Ashiru was Nigerian Taekwondo champion in the light and welter weight categories and won a silver medal at the 4th All Africa Games in Kenya in 1987. [1] He has been named Best National Player, Best National Referee and then Team Manager to the Beijing 2008 Nigerian Taekwondo Olympic Team. [2] Additionally, he became Africa's first ever 7th Degree Black belt International Master Instructor & International Referee Class A, certified by the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), [3] and 8th Degree Taekwondo, issued in Korea through Taekwondo Jidokwan Korea, named "Taekwondo Ambassador" by Taekwondo Jidokwan Society, and is listed in the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) Hall of Fame. He is Technical Advisor and two time Inductee of the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame and a Special Correspondent with the US Taekwondo Times magazine. In 2011 the president of the Kukkiwon awarded him the "Commendation Certificate" for promotion of Taekwondo all over the world. George Ashiru is also an International Referee by the World Taekwondo Federation as well as a graduate of the Kukkiwon Foreign Masters Training Course, 2012. He was appointed Regular Member of the Kukkiwon 2012 Seoul World Taekwondo Leaders Forum. He is also distinguished as a certified Master of Tang Soo Do by the World Tang Soo Do Association and one of the world's leading exponents of Korean Kempo. In Nigeria, he was at various times, an executive member of the Nigeria Judo Federation, chairman, Grading Commission of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, chairman, Ogun State Taekwondo Association and a member of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Marketing Commission. In December 2012 he was "Outstanding Achievement" Awardee of the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria and was in the same period appointed the continental director for Africa by the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame. In May 2013 he was elected the 7th President of the World Taekwondo Federation member national association (MNA), the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation. In 2013 George Ashiru was elected vice president of the Commonwealth Taekwondo Union. In 2014 he was appointed by the Honourable Minister of Sports in Nigeria as a member of the National High Performance Task Team. He is a board member of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, and vice chairman of the Technical Commission of the NOC.
George Ashiru was appointed the international technical advisor of the Sierra Leone Taekwondo Association in 2018. In 2017 and 2021 he was international expert for Olympic solidarity programmes in Sierra Leone. In February 2022 he was promoted to 9th degree black belt by the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation, based in Seoul, Korea.
George Ashiru, in addition to his exploits in sports is also highly accomplished in several other areas. He was elected the Lagos State Chairman of the African Democratic Congress Party in May 2017. In 1988 he was named "Mr Nigeria" and represented the country at the 11th Mr & Miss University Pageant in Tokyo, Japan. He was a delegate to the World Student's Festival in the UK in 1990. He was a national television presenter on Nigeria's NTA Youth Scene between 1988 and 1990. While studying at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, he founded the Ultimate Gold/Love Foundations and the University of Lagos Taekwondo Club, both of which have endured since the mid-1980s till today. In recognition of his varied achievements, Nigeria's Vanguard Newspapers named him one of the "40 Young Leaders of The Future" in 1995. In 1997 he was awarded with the prestigious "Men of Achievement Awards" at the Lagos Sheraton Hotels. In 1998, the Comet Newspapers also named him "Leader of the Future". He also produced a television programme for DBN Television in Lagos and was a regular columnist for several magazines, since the then popular but now defunct Classique Magazine, back in the late 80s. In 1997 he led a delegation of business men members of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (Kaduna) to the World Trade Expo, in Detroit, USA. Later that same year, he organised, with the same Chamber, the National Seminar, "Nigeria Can Compete".
George is an ordained minister of the Gospel, with his own Transformation Ministries. In 2003, the Federal Government co-opted him as an official Chaplain for the COJA 2003 All Africa Games in Abuja. He also coordinates the NGO, Town Hall Meetings Project (THMP). [4] He also runs his own IATA-accredited travel business and is an official representative of the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) in Nigeria. He was, at one time the vice chairman of the Tourism Group of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce, Lagos. One of George's keen activities is mentoring emerging leaders and giving inspirational talks, to youths, government personnel and the general citizenry, on personal development, entrepreneurship, and nation building. He is also a member of several national prayer intercession groups.
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving punching and kicking techniques. The word Taekwondo can be translated as tae, kwon, and do. In addition to its five tenets of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit, the sport requires three physical skills: poomsae (품새), kyorugi (겨루기) and gyeokpa (격파).
Choi Hong-hi was a South Korean Army general, and martial artist who was an important figure in the history of the Korean martial art of Taekwondo, albeit controversial due to his introduction of taekwondo to North Korea.
World Taekwondo, called the World Taekwondo Federation until June 2017, is an international federation governing the sport of taekwondo and is a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).
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Jidokwan is one of the original nine schools of the modern Korean martial arts that became Taekwondo and was founded in what is now South Korea at the end of World War II. Its name translates as "School of Wisdom". The Jidokwan in Korea still exists today. It functions as a social fraternal order. Jidokwan supports and endorses the Kukkiwon method of Taekwondo, and supports World Taekwondo.
Korea Taekwondo Association, originally the Korea Tang Soo Do Association (1961), is the first taekwondo organisation. It was founded in 1959,[a] although official South Korean sources give 1961 as its year of establishment.[b] In 1966, some members of the KTA, led by H. H. Choi, broke off from the KTA and formed the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF). The Kukkiwon and the then-World Taekwondo Federation were created by the KTA in the early 1970s. The KTA sits under the Korea Sports Council, is aligned with Kukkiwon, and is a Member National Association (MNA) of the WT. Its goal is to promote the martial art taekwondo as a national sport within South Korea.
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Kwan in Korean literally means building or hall, but in the context of martial arts can also refer to a school or clan of martial artists who follow the same style or leader.
Kyongwon Ahn, 9th dan (Kukkiwon), is a South Korean taekwondo master who founded the United Taekwondo Association (UTA) in the United States.
Rhee Chong-chul was a South Korean Master of Taekwondo who arrived to Australia in the 1960s. He is the founder of Rhee Taekwon-Do, which is widely publicised as Australia's first and biggest Taekwondo school. Rhee holds the title 'World Master' and the rank of 8th Dan in Taekwondo. He is one of the twelve Original Masters of Taekwondo of the Korea Taekwon-Do Association (KTA).[a]
The original masters of taekwondo is a group of twelve South Korean martial art masters assembled by the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) in the early 1960s to promote the newly established art of taekwondo. In alphabetical order following Korean naming conventions, they are: Choi Chang-Keun, Choi Kwang-Jo, Han Cha-Kyo, Kim Jong-Chan, Kim Kwan-Il, Kong Young-Il, Park Jong-Soo, Park Jung-Tae, Park Sun-Jae, Rhee Chong-Chul, Rhee Chong-Hyup, and Rhee Ki-Ha.
Nam Tae-hi was a pioneering South Korean master of taekwondo and is known as the "Father of Vietnamese Taekwondo". With Choi Hong-hi, he co-founded the "Oh Do Kwan" and led the twelve original masters of taekwondo of the Korea Taekwon-Do Association (KTA).
Chang Ung is a North Korean sports administrator and former athlete. He is currently the honorary life president of the International Taekwon-Do Federation, having previously served as its President from 2002 to 2015 following the death of General Choi Hong Hi from stomach cancer on 15 June 2002. Chang previously served as a member of the International Olympic Committee representing North Korea, and now serves as an honorary member of the IOC.
Sun-hwan Chung, also known as James Sun-hwan Chung, is one of the highest-ranking Tang Soo Do, Hapkido, and taekwondo grandmasters in the world. He is founder of the Moo Sool Do form of martial arts and is president of the World Academy of Martial Arts, LLC.
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Brenda J. Sell is an American martial arts instructor, and the highest ranking non-Korean female practitioner of taekwondo, according to the Kukkiwon, an international ranking body within Taekwondo. She holds the rank of 9th degree black belt in the art.
Samer Kamal is a Jordanian taekwondo practitioner, competing in the featherweight category.