President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation and top World Taekwondo Referee, Mrs Margaret Elizabeth Binga, won the “Best Female Referee” Award of the just concluded World Taekwondo G-2 ranked Egypt Open, which was held in Cairo, Egypt.
The former two-time African Champion was invited to officiate at the high-level event, which would earn her top ranking points, and improve her quest towards being promoted to a Grade-1 ranked International Referee.
Presenting the award to the decorated Nigeria Taekwondo President was the President of the African Taekwondo Union, General Ahmed Fouly, who praised the work ethics and achievements of Binga.
“It is amazing that Mrs Binga still finds the time to perform her international referee duties and at the same time shepherd such a high level of taekwondo activities back in Nigeria. We are keenly following the flurry of activities in Nigeria and it is very commendable. Her performance as a referee at this event is only a testament to her constant drive to achieve excellence while working hard.”
The award will be a boost to Mrs Binga as the Federation has set a target to target 100 new referees before the end of the four-year tenure of the present board.
The last NTF National Referee Course in December had more than 35 participants, and the Federation will be looking to conduct more National Referee Seminars across the six geo-political zones as the year runs out.
Thanking the tournament organizers, coaches and referees for voting her as the best Referee, Mrs Binga talked about how she hoped this award could inspire more excellence within the Nigeria Taekwondo Referee circles.
“Nigeria has good referees but we would want to step up their training so more of us can take our place on the world stage. This would require a lot of work and I hope that awards like this can motivate us more towards this aim”
Speaking on the absence of Nigeria athletes at the event, Mrs Binga noted that it was a tactical decision of the NTF technical team.
“The NTF Technical crew has earmarked the G-4 ranked African Championships and G-2 WT President Cup Africa, both scheduled to hold in Morocco end of March as the planned events for the year. I will also be officiating at this event. Having empowered the technical crew, I am bound to respect their technical decisions so everything can move smoothly. Looking at their decision to attend the Morocco event that had two majors back-to-back and more ranking points, it was a tactical one that also saves costs for the Federation”