Taekwondo kicks off at AWST 2026 with teams from 8 Arab countries

Making its first appearance on the AWST programme, taekwondo enters the tournament with official G1 classification from World Taekwondo.

Athletes from eight Arab countries, representing nine clubs, will contest gold medals across eight official weight categories, after the technical committee confirmed that the taekwondo competition will fully adopt the weight divisions approved by World Taekwondo, ensuring fairness and a high standard of competition.

The tournament will span the finweight, middleweight and heavyweight divisions, beginning the first day with categories +73kg, -67kg, -57kg ,-49kg and the second day will include the categories -73kg, -62kg, -53kg, -46kg.

In addition to medals, the tournament will present special awards recognising individual excellence, team discipline, officiating standards and overall team rankings, underscoring the importance of every point earned towards collective success.

The tournament will operate a double weigh-in system in accordance with World Taekwondo regulations, with the official weigh-in taking place one day prior to competition. A random weigh-in will also be conducted on competition mornings for selected categories, with the draw announced at 6:00 am via the official communication channel.

The technical committee further confirmed the tournament’s strict adherence to World Anti-Doping Agency regulations, with random, unannounced testing conducted throughout the competition.