FLYING START: A participant at the 17th Tae kwon do championships on Monday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Arindam Gupta, a Class XI student, has come from Jalpaiguri. Jharna Chakraborty, a Class V student, is from north Calcutta. Seema Debnath, of Class IX, is from Purulia.

The 17th Annual State Tae kwon do Championship drew 400 competitors ? like Arindam, Jharna and Seema ? from 15 districts. The three-day contest at Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra ended on Monday.

Tae kwon do is a Korean martial art and also the national game of the country. ?Tae? means kick, ?kwon? using a hand or fist to block or strike, and ?Do? means an art or a way.

?Tae kwon do aims to achieve courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and an indomitable spirit,? said Gobinda Jaiswal, general secretary of the Bengal Taekwondo Association (BTA).

According to him, the sport is gaining ?phenomenal popularity? in Bengal. ?Practising Tae kwon do is the only way of keeping fit as well as being able to defend oneself and protect others without using weapons. A practitioner trains his/her body to become a good-looking weapon,? he added.

Another boon of the sport is that it helps keep globular and cholesterol levels in blood under check and thus, boosts the cardiovascular system.

Tae kwon do practitioners are slim because 80 per cent of their physical movement is through the legs and the rest through the hands.

?As for women, the martial art trains them to look after themselves in any situation without making them look extra-athletic or muscular,? said Ritu Bharghava, one of the organisers.

Tae kwon do does not interfere in physical growth while making a child self-disciplined. It enhances a child?s level of concentration and teaches him to use even a negative emotion like ?fear? in a positive way, she added.