INTERNATIONAL MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT IN MEMORY OF BRUCE LEE HELD IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.08.2009 12:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ International tournament in memory of the legendary
martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was held on August 21 in Yerevan
in the "Dinamo" gym. The tournament was attended by athletes from
Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Iran.

The tournament was organized by the JKD Federation of Armenia,
headed by the President of the Armenia’s JKD Federation Artyusha
Khandoyan. The latter told the PanARMENIAN.Net t about the idea of
organizing this event and explained to the reason why the delegations
of Sri Lanka, Nigeria and India haven’t come.

"Since July 20 is a day of the death of Bruce Lee, we have organized
international tournaments in his memory since 2004. This year,
countries whose athletes were supposed to attend, asked us to postpone
the tournament because they were unable to come in July. We’ ve sent
invitations to the Nigerian Academy of Martial Arts and the Academy
of Kung Fu Sri Lanka, the Association of Shotokan Karate-India and
Iran. Sri Lanka refused to participate, while Nigeria and India was not
able to come on time , they had problems with visas, " Khandoyan said.

There will be many styles of martial arts, including the style JKD,
established by Bruce Lee himself, in the tournament. 84 sportsmen
to take part in the tournament from Armenia, and 13 athletes from
Iran. Armenian athletes will present 9 styles of martial arts.

According Khandoyana this tournament is also important in respect to
cooperation between federations of martial arts of different countries.

"We rarely participate in international tournaments due to shortage
of resources, and therefore international tournaments in Yerevan,
organized 1-2 times a year are of great importance for us, in terms
of gaining experience and cooperation with martial arts federations
of different countries ", Khandoyan said.

Tournament results will be summarized on Sunday 22 August.