The Baku mess

Markku P

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The Olympic games will be in 2012 and the first World qualification tournament will be in Baku, Azerbaijan. Yesterday we got the news that the Electric body protector won’t be used in the tournament.

Personally I don’t know what to think about it. The first thought that came to my mind was, has the legal team of the World Taekwondo Federation made their homework?

If Lajust has a contract with WTF and it says that they are the main provider for e-chest protectors, then why do they choose Daedo for the Baku Tournament? I know that most people feel that Daedos e-protectors is much more reliable and better than Lajusts but if they are breaking a contract without valid legal reasons then someone has really screwed up? If WTF didn’t get written into the contract specifying a quality of performance that the product should have to meet then there has been huge mistake!

Lajust themselves has now generated a lot of bad blood around the Taekwondo world. This whole mess might effect our chances to continue as an Olympic sport beyond 2016, or at least show how poor the level in the management of WTF is since they allows this to go this far, to go back to the old system of scoring in Baku.

Worst of all, the fighters (and the referees?) got information about this just a few days before the competition!

Lajust,as a brand, may have made critical errors in the eyes of the Taekwondo world? I think this might be the beginning of the end for them as a company? Just too much negative publicity..?

Well, let’s hope that the tournament will be a great success and doesn’t generate any scandals!



/Markku P
 

troubleenuf

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Maybe they figured they had nothing to loose. They had already lost the Olympics so basically they had lost the race. Chances are they had paid allot of money to someone and been guaranteed that they would be used in the Olympics and now are ticked off and going to make someone pay for it. And if that someone is all of the TKD world then Oh well so be it. They probably dont care at this point.
 

Thesemindz

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My guess is Lajust can't survive without being the official and exclusive provider of this service and WTF jumped in to bed with them without properly protecting themselves. Now that serious quality issues have been repeatedly raised with Lajust's equipment, WTF wants out but Lajust can't afford to let that happen, so it goes to the lawyers.

This seems like a big screw up all around. WTF looks bad for signing an exclusive contract with a company who can't provide world class quality. Lajust looks bad for providing substandard equipment to world class athletes. And they both look bad for letting this become a legal matter instead of dealing with it internally. And now top level competitors at international competitions have to rely on judges who may have become, at least partially, reliant on technology to do the real work for them. Who knows how that will effect the quality of competition moving forward? Black eyes all around.

I think TKD is probably on it's way out as an olympic sport anyway. I could be wrong, but I've seen a lot of complaints about the way competitors are selected, the way they are coached, the way tournaments are structured, and the way scoring is done. I've been hearing rumors for years that TKD's olympic status has been in jeapordy, and where there's smoke, there's fire.

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am. I think olympic level TKD is an interesting and unique sport. But I also think it's been used to sell a lot of false hope to a lot of amateur competitors over the years. Maybe being booted from the olympics wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. Maybe it would force some schools to re-examine what and why they teach.

Either way, if Lajust's products really are substandard, WTF owes it to their athletes to replace them with something better. Olympic level athletes deserve olympic level equipment. Their chances to compete for gold shouldn't hang on second rate hit detection.


-Rob
 

Kong Soo Do

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Maybe being booted from the olympics wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. Maybe it would force some schools to re-examine what and why they teach.
-Rob

A little self-evaluation from time to time is always healthy.
 

StudentCarl

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WTF looks bad for signing an exclusive contract with a company who can't provide world class quality. -Rob

This WTF action is more important because it shows poor judgment. Those responsible for this should be sacked, possibly all the way to the top. This one issue may be the tipping point for Olympic status, the beginning of the end, unless decisive and positive action is taken.
 

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