WTF Approves Rule Changes at General Assembly-- Federations Focus

(ATR)The World Taekwondo Federation's 27th General Assembly has come to an end and major changes have been made.

Numerous adjustments to the WTF competition rules were presented by WTF Director General Jin-bang Yang during the assembly. WTF President Chungwon Choue agrees that the rules are well overdue for revision and that "it is time to upgrade the sport so that it dazzles and excites".

Some of the proposed changes include adding extra points to encourage "active attacks", wider sanctions on various leg actions, the removal of automatic penalties for pushing and much more.

Click here toview the full list of newly revised rules.

All changes have been approved by the General Assembly and will be put into effect beginning in January. The full application will become effective at the 2017 Muju World Taekwondo Championships in June.

U.S. Hosts First Chess Champs in More Than 20 Years

The first World Chess Championships in the United States since 1995 are being held in Lower Manhattan, New York this month.

The remaining competitors are defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and chess grand-master Sergey Karjakin of Russia. The head of the World Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was unable to attend due to being barred from the United States because of his ties to the Syrian government.

Press secretary to Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, and actor Woody Harrelson were among those able to attend the first match on Nov.11 though, which lasted around four hours.

The 12-game FIDE World Chess Championship series is scheduled to continue until Nov. 30.

New FIH President Elected

For the next four years Dr. Narinder Batra will be serving as the 12th president of the International Hockey Federation. Batra will be the first ever Indian delegate to hold that position.

The former president of Hockey India was also a member of FIH"s executive board and founded the India Hockey League (HIL).

Batra defeated Ken Raed of Australia and David Balbiring of Ireland in the election andwill be succeeding Leonardo Negre, who served two terms as president since 2008.

Kim Andersen Elected World Sailing President

Kim Andersen of Denmark will now serve as the president of the World Sailing Federation.

Andersen was elected over two other candidates which includedincumbent Carlo Croce of Italy and former World Sailing president Paul Henderson of Canada during the sport’s general assembly in Barcelona, Spain.

Anderson, the former athlete who competed in more than 20 World and European sailing championships, also served as chairman and council member of the World Sailing's Equipment Committee for eight years.

Homepage photo: World Taekwondo Federation

Written by Courtney Colquitt

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