TEHRAN A veteran administrator of kung fu toa Mohammad Ma'soomi said kung fu toa is an Iranian martial art practiced in many countries. In an exclusive interview with the TEHRAN TIMES, Ma'soomi said kung fu toa history dates back to 1971 and some 1000 trainees have been attracted in the earliest time and now this figure has increased to one million people.

He said Firooz Habibpour, Hooshang Habibpour, Hussein Davoodi-Panah, Mostafa Jalili and me as well as the other interested play a partial role in developing kung fu toa. Asked if kung fu toa practicers here have participated in international contests, Ma'soomi said in 1996 Asian competitions held in the Philippines and attended by 23 countries, Erfanian ranked first, Bahman Ghassemi also stood first, Moftakhari second, and Ali Tare' third.

He added that in the 1997 world contests in Italy, attended by 58 countries, Ali Mir-Miran grabbed the championship title, Hussein Ojaghi ranked first too, Bahman Shavandi finished second, and Mohammad Reza Ja'fari third. Ma'soomi added, It is deplorable that despite our capabilities in winning world medals and in spite of one million practicers of kung fu toa, we don't have an independent federation.

He called on the head of the Martial Arts Federation (MAF) Elyas Hazrati to give us an independent federation, the budget of which we will supply, without creating any burden on MAF. Mr. Hazrati has been very helpful and greatly served kung fu toa, for which we thank him, but we need an independent federation, continued Ma'soomi, 44 years old with rotbeh 7 (equivalent to Dan 7).

Since kung fu toa has found its way into many countries of the world, we need an independent federation to organize our representatives, he justified. Ma'soomi said kung fu toa is a martial art underscoring morale values which are requisite to martial arts. This is the philosophy of ethics in kung fu toa which has drew the attention of numerous young adults to practice it, Ma'soomi pointed out.