Honour Most Deserved

Fri, Dec 14, 2012

By publisher

2 MIN READ

Anthony Muhammed, an internationally-rated taekwondo referee was voted the best taekwondo official at the just concluded Eko 2012 in Lagos

|  By Ishaya Ibrahim   | Dec. 24, 2012 @ 01:00 GMT

ANTHONY Muhammed, Nigeria’s internationally rated Taekwondo referee and staff of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo state, has added a feather to his cap. The martial art champion, who was also a Taekwondo referee at the just-concluded National Sports Festival, tagged “Eko 2012” hosted by the Lagos State government, was voted the best Taekwondo official. He won the award after officials of the sports festival took notice of his exceptional and almost flawless and unbiased officiating. Rigorous processes were employed in the selection.

It was not a fluke that Muhammed was voted the best referee in the Taekwondo category of Eko 2012.  He has made a mark in the sport which combines combat techniques with self-defense, discipline, and in some cases meditation and philosophy. A second dan {second degree} black belt holder of the World Taekwondo Federation, WTF, Muhammed was a national champion between 1989 and 1994 and within that period, he represented Nigeria at the 1991 All Africa Games where he won a bronze medal.  In that same year, he was also the Nigerian representative at the World Taekwondo Championship in Athens, Greece.

Married and blessed with a child, Muhammed was born on November 23, 1971. He had his primary and secondary education in Lagos, before proceeding to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, where he bagged a B. Ed degree in Economics. He became a referee after successfully completing a taekwondo coaching course at the Nigeria Institute of Sports, NIS, Lagos.