COACH and players of the national taekwondo team, which arrived in Germany this morning to begin a training tour of Europe, believe the exercise would aid them in the sport.

An elated Coach John Victor admitted before the team’s departure yesterday “the trip would open the athletes to a latest techniques of the sport.”

The coach said, “the confidence built through this trip would force the athletes to set higher targets for themselves, adding that as a coach, the trip would make an international coach, just as the knowledge gained would help him to turn grassroots champions into international fighters.”

Also speaking on the trip, 19-year old Segun Olushola, a gold medalist at the last National Sports Festival, was very excited at his very first chance of travelling out of the country, saying the experience he would gain during the international training camp would expand his taekwondo knowledge.

Bronze medalist at the 2011 Maputo All Africa Games, 20 year-old Sunday Onofe, chose to focus on the effect the trip would have on his performance in international tournament, while Joy Ekhator, who is ranked 40 in the women’s -49kg by World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), is thinking of the impact of the tour on his preparation for the world championships later this year.

She has been unbeaten in the past six years as Nigeria’s number one in the flyweight division, but she is yet to get over her loss in the semifinals stage during the qualification for both the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics.

Ekhator, however, believes the experience on this trip would increase her chances of bettering her two African Games medals (silver at AAG 2007 and bronze at AAG 2011), and qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The eight-person team will compete with clubs like Sportschuke Kwaik (Karlsche, Germany), TKD Creti Club (Tubingen, Germany), Armare Waiblingen Taekwondo Club (Waiblingen, Germany), and five other teams that have indicated interest in sparring and training sessions with the Nigerian team.