FLORIDA AAU DISTRICT TAEKWONDO QUALIFIER

Written by: newsadmin  

On Saturday, April 28, 2007 the Florida AAU District Taekwondo Championship, under the direction of District Sports Chair David Turnbull, broke the all-time record for athlete participation when 653 athletes descended on the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

"Prior to this event, we have had had many great District and Regional

Championships within the Program", says National Sports Chair Mike Friello, "but none on the scale of what David was able to accomplish with the 2007 Florida AAU Taekwondo Championship". In 2004 Bill Dewart hosted 400 athletes at his Region #13 event in San Francisco. And in 2005 James Henry saw 495 participants for his Georgia AAU qualifier. Earlier in 2007 Mark Giambi hosted 455 athletes in Houston for the Region #9 event and Albano DaSilva raised the bar to 499 for the Potomac Valley Championship in the Maryland/DC area. But Mr. Turnbull just blew right through the 400 and 500 athlete benchmarks and served 653 athletes in a one-day, nine-ring, managerial masterpiece.
 

"It is extremely difficult to successful host such a large event in just one day with local talent alone," said Mr. Friello. "But David had the foresight to envision an event of this magnitude and brought in managerial and official talent from throughout the country to help him insure, not just a large tournament, but a well planned, quality event."
 

Officials and staff personnel from as far away as New York and Maryland, as well as seasoned veterans from Tennessee, and Georgia were invited in at Mr. Turnbull's expense to help insure that this event would surely showcase what the AAU Taekwondo Program has to offer.
 

"Our congratulations go out to David Turnbull, his club, the entire Florida AAU Taekwondo Member schools and all 653 AAU Competitors who participated in this fantastic event. It certainly sets the stage for our National Championships later in July in Fort Lauderdale," Mr. Friello was quoted as saying. "We're hoping to see this kind of response to our National Championships repeated each day over five consecutive days! With average participation at the District and Regional level competitions running +28% so far this year, the 2007 National AAU Taekwondo Championships will surely be one for the record books."