George Ashiru

George Ashiru in our words

Ashiru George is a professional and retired Taekwondo master in Nigeria. He had his education at Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Ogun State, Federal Government College, Kaduna, University of Lagos and Middlesex University.

He won a silver medal for Nigeria at the 4th All Africa Games in Kenya in 1987. He was conferred as the Best National Player and Best national Referee at the Olympic Games. He was the Team manager to the Nigeria Taekwondo Olympic Team at the 2008 Olympic Game in Beijing.

He is been listed in the World Taekwondo Federation Hall of Fame, apart from sports he has highly achieved in other areas of his life. He was a Nigerian television presenter on NTA Youth Scene from 1988 to 1990 and also the founder of the Ultimate Gold/Love Foundations and the University of Lagos Taekwondo Club when he was at the University of Lagos Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Vanguard Newspaper named him one of the 40 young leaders of the future in 1995 due to his numerous achievements. As an entrepreneur, he led a body of businessmen which is the members of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (Kaduna) to the World Trade Expo in Detroit, USA. Prior to the same year, he organized a National seminar with the same chamber with the theme “Nigeria Can Compete”.

Mr George has recorded so many laurels for Nigeria since the history of Taekwondo. He specializes in the light and welterweight category and has emerged Nigerian Taekwondo Champion several times.

He was Africa’s first ever 7th Degree black belt international master instructor and international Referee Class A as was confirmed by the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF). He is the Technical Advisor of the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame and was awarded a Commendation Certificate by the President of the Kukkiwon in the year 2011 for promoting Taekwondo all over the world.

Champion turned leader

A seven-time Nigerian champion in the lightweight and welterweight divisions, George Ashiru was part of Nigeria’s first national team at the 1987 All-Africa Games in Nairobi. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Lagos and went on to Middlesex University. In May 2013 he was elected the seventh president of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation and inducted into the World Taekwondo Hall of Fame, and he became a vice-president of the Commonwealth Taekwondo Union. He was promoted to 9th dan in 2022.