Jordan wins bronze in taekwondo in 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Jordanian team consisting of 17 athletes and five officials arrived in Taiwan two weeks ago to participate in the 29th Summer Universiade, which kicked off on August 19 in Taipei city.

Participants from 140 nations are taking part in the event, which will run until August 30. Jordan is competing in three sports: taekwondo, tennis and athletics.

Ahmad Abu Ghaush, who won gold in the taekwondo-68kg event at the Rio Olympics 2016, won a bronze medal for the Kingdom in this year’s Universiade. 

The Universiade is organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) as an international multi-sports event for university athletes. It is one of the highest-profile international sporting events, second only to the Olympic Games, in terms of the variety of competitions and the number of participating countries and athletes, according to the official website of 2017 Taipei Universiade.

“It is not only for sport. We have the opportunity to change our culture here: we get to show Jordanians how to make decisions, and how to be friendly to players from other countries,” the head of the Jordanian delegation, Ali Aldaradreh, told The Jordan Times.

Another taekwondo player, Eman Al Adaileh, said: “I am not satisfied by my performance [in the competition]. But, regarding my first time experience in the Universiade, I am happy with it. It was such a great experience.”

Nineteen-year-old Eman also commended the smartwatch provided to the Universiade participants as a gift as “really convenient”. 

The smartwatch — provided by Taiwanese hi-tech companies, Media Tek Inc., Acer Inc., and EasyCard Corp. — has EasyCard stored-value, purchasing and exercise tracking functions.

Taipei Universiade will hold its closing ceremony on August 30.

Six members of the Jordanian delegation already left Taiwan on Sunday as they finished all their competitions, while the rest of the team will return to the Kingdom on August 31.