KB News Desk
CJ Group said Wednesday it will host the 2026 CJ National Youth Taekwondo Championship from Thursday to Monday at the Rach Mieu Sports Complex in Ho Chi Minh City, followed by the CJ Vietnam Open at the same venue from July 28 to 29.
Launched in 2019, the CJ National Youth Taekwondo Championship is Vietnam’s only national taekwondo tournament sponsored by a foreign company. This year’s event will bring together about 1,000 athletes from 31 provinces and 300 officials.
The CJ Vietnam Open, now in its second year, will feature athletes from countries with emerging taekwondo programs, including India, Cambodia and Japan.
The tournaments will serve as a key test ahead of the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, while marking the start of ranking-point accumulation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which begins this month.
Both events will be live streamed on Vietnam’s leading OTT platform, FPT Play, to broaden the sport’s reach among local audiences.
CJ Group has sponsored Vietnam’s national taekwondo team since 2012, supporting overseas training and participation in major international competitions. In 2017, it appointed former Korean national youth team member Kim Kil-tae as head coach to strengthen the team’s competitiveness.
The investment has produced results. Vietnam won nine medals, including two golds, at this year’s Asian Taekwondo Championships. The team is now targeting qualification in six of the eight weight classes and multiple medals at the upcoming Asian Games.
Ahead of the tournaments, CJ is also running promotional campaigns through its Vietnamese subsidiaries, including CJ CheilJedang, CJ Foodville and CJ CGV.
“Through taekwondo, one of Korea’s representative sports, we hope to promote Korean culture and inspire greater interest in healthy Korean lifestyles,” a CJ Group official said.
