By Scarlet Bringuenti Bennett, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On November 27th, the International Military Sports Council (CISM) will be opening their 24th World Military Championship (WMC) Taekwondo tournament for the second time at the Brazilian naval base in Rio, which ends December 3rd.
CISM annually organizes over twenty WCM’s for different sports in which all member nations can take part. They also organize continental and regional competitions and every four years the Military World Games and most recently Winter Games are held.
There are 138 countries that are CISM members and any are welcome to enter any of the 26 sporting events, including beach volleyball, shooting and even the military or naval pentathlon.
The last WCM Taekwondo event was held in Korea, in 2015. Over 500 athletes attended with 41 countries competing in the men’s event and 25 in the women’s.
CISM sport competitions, whether it be a WCM or a continental/regional competition are taking very seriously and regulations are strict. On the CISM Taekwondo Instagram page, the commander of Centro de Educação Física Almirante Adalberto Nunes (CEFAN) made a statement saying, “taking into account, the extreme of those events, which will be televised and will be attended by many high ranking authorities… Regulations is of the upmost importance…”
Ensuring this adherence to regulations is very important to the countries as they are representing not only an organization, but their military also.
The opening ceremony will start at 5:30 PM on Wednesday, November 28th and every country according to the regulations is expected to come. The event is located at CEFAN, located at 10.590 Avenida Brasil – Penha – Rio de Janeiro.