The 2,000 square-feet spacious ‘dojang’ (place where Taekwondo is practised) of the Madurai Takewondo Academy reverberates with “kei...kei” as a bunch of youngsters shout out rhythmically with each kick. Wearing a ‘dobok’ (the white uniform of the sport), they do stretching exercises in preparation for the Guinness record for the Largest Taekwondo Display (multiple venues).
“The effort is to better the 2014 record with 805 participants at 11 venues. This time the number of participants is 2,000,” says N. Narayanan, who runs the academy. “The record is to demonstrate Iljang for 30 minutes. It is the first part of the Poomsae, an artistic demonstration of Takewondo that a contestant learns over the years” he adds. The event is planned for April 30 in different venues across the country including Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Guwahati and Delhi, apart from Madurai.
Participating in record-breaking attempt is nothing new for the members of the academy as they have already created the Guinness record for the most full contact kicks in an hour six months ago. The team scored 58,683 kicks in 60 minutes. “We were novices. I came to know about the attempt when I went to Hyderabad for national-level referee instructor course,” says Narayanan, who sacrificed a lucrative career in the IT field and started the academy here.
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New to coaching taekwondo, Narayanan then had no clue about the selection process to enter Guinness. “I started the academy in Madurai with the prime objective of taking the sport to masses. I got student enrolments from affluent families and also offer free training to economically poor children,” he says.
It was not easy for the team as they had to undergo strenuous selection trial to qualify for the event.
The event’s rule was such that for every one minute the participants got three minutes of rest. At the outset, it may look easy, but actually it was not.
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The participants were set a target of 80 kicks per minute. After a month’s practice they managed only 60 kicks and beyond that was tough. “Students got tired easily and I realised they had to follow a strict diet regime to accomplish the milestone. At the end of the third month we were able to accomplish 80 kicks, some had even scored 85 kicks in a minute. Finally we fielded 11 participants and all qualified making us the largest contingent to participate in the event. Host city Hyderabad had only nine members,” beams Narayanan.
The members who participated in the feat are the record holders. “I am now a celebrity in my institution. I was honoured on the Sports Day for my achievement,” says C. Abhishek Prabhu, II B.E. Information Technology, Thiagarajar College of Engineering.
Since his academy is a private one, Narayanan found it difficult to get 200 trained members for the next attempt. “I visited schools and colleges and explained to them about the event.
The timing of the attempt is not in favour as many schools are closed for vacation. Even then, I already have good number of participants and 50 more are coming from Chennai to take part in the event,” he says. To train his students, Narayanan has fixed rubberised Taekwondo mats on the floor to prevent any injury and installed mannequins to improve the sparring (fight) skills of the player.