Park Seong-bin (right) on Nov. 17 faces Justin Peh of Singapore in the finals of the individual male (ages 16-35) competition at the inaugural World Taekwondo Virtual Championships at OCBC Arena in Singapore. (World Taekwondo)

By Margareth Theresia

The World Taekwondo Virtual Championships from Nov. 16-17 concluded its successful inaugural run at OCBC Arena in Singapore.

Virtual taekwondo is a new form of real-time competition in which participants face virtual foes using the cutting-edge motion tracking AXIS system and virtual reality headsets.

A player wins a match by draining the power gauge of his or her opponent's avatar or having a higher gauge if time runs out. Each match has three one-minute rounds, with the competitor who claims two declared the winner.

Some 120 national players from 23 countries including Korea, individual neutral athletes and those from refugee teams participated to demonstrate their potential in a digital convergence sport.

 
The matches were divided into five age categories: mixed junior (ages 13-15), individual men and women and mixed (16-35), and mixed masters (36 or older).

Korea had 10 competitors, with Park Sung-bin clinching a silver medal and Lee Gyu-min and Eom So-hyun each a bronze.

"Hosting a virtual taekwondo world championship is highly significant ahead of the creation of the Olympic Esports Series," said Choue Chungwon, president of the martial art's global governing body World Taekwondo (WT). "We will expand technical conferences with developers and competition organizers to keep improving virtual system technology."

WT said it is considering a Grand Prix series in cooperation with global tournament organizers, eyeing the adoption of taekwondo as an official event at the inaugural Olympic Esports Series next year in Saudi Arabia.

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