The 2017-2018 World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Wild Card Games are held at Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center on Nov 23. [Photo/thmz.com]

The first round of the 2017-2018 World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Wild Card Games were held at the Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center on Nov 23.

Sponsored by the World Taekwondo Federation and the Wuxi government, it is currently the highest-level taekwondo competition and the only Olympic trial in China. The competitors who rank top in the three-year scoreboard will qualify for the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo.

More than 240 top-level athletes from 37 countries and regions took part in the competition, including those from Iran, South Korea, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

As the host, the Chinese team was made up of 102 athletes, including national players and medalists from previous world taekwondo competitions.

Zhao Shuai, the gold medalist of Rio 2016 Taekwondo Men's 58kg, will attend the competition for its final round to be held in January, 2018.

The World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series has been established by the World Taekwondo Federation to promote taekwondo around the world. Wuxi Taihu New City has been named as one of the permanent hosts for the event.

A total prize pot of $800,000 has been set aside for the winners, those of which in each category will receive $70,000 each – the highest moentary reward of any taekwondo competition.

Yang Zhenfang, general secretary of the World Taekwondo Federation, was impressed by the development of the sports industry in Wuxi and said that he expects taekwondo to develop well here.