The BOSM English Press interviewed Ayush Chauhan, the Captain of the taekwondo team at BITS Pilani for the upcoming fest.

He started with describing the two forms in which the sport is played: poomsae and sparring. He elaborated that BOSM 2025 solely has the sparring format, which consists of knockout fights—he who wins keeps advancing through the matches. Different kinds of attacks have different points allotted to them, and the contender with higher points wins. Each match is played as two rounds of two minutes each, with a third possible round in case of a tie. He furthered that the sub-categories in Taekwondo are divided based on the basis of age, gender and weight.

Ayush noted that the taekwondo team at BITS Pilani currently has 18 players. He stated that the team values consistency and sincerity in players more than skill when it comes to selecting and retaining players.  As BOSM approached, the team is engaged in intense practice in the morning and evening. The Captain said they were expecting tough competition from teams like Galgotias University, O.P. Jindal Global University, and Bennett University. 

Ayush highlighted that historically, the team has had several accomplished players including various national medallists. They recently participated in outstation competitions at Bennett University and IIT Roorkee, where they bagged several medals. Ayush noted that the team has had a coach this semester, which has been a huge help for all players, especially the senior players who earlier had to sacrifice their own practice in order to teach the juniors.

The Captain mentioned time constraints as a key challenge for preparing the team for BOSM, since most of the newly recruited players have no prior knowledge of taekwondo. In such a scenario, recruiting players and teaching them the sport right from the basics took a lot of time. He further mentioned the lack of support from the administration in providing the players with makeup exams when they represented BITS in outstation tournaments. 

On a closing note, Ayush encouraged the BITS students to take interest in taekwondo, and join them at SAC to learn the sport, even if they don’t join the team.